The aim of this paper is to examine the limits of liberal democracies within the architecture of the nation-state and its contradictory attitude to minority representation. While accepting the important progressive and egalitarian achievements of liberal democracy within nation states, the nation of the state is a monocultural device constitutive of the body of citizens. Most contemporary liberal democratic nation states are however, far from homogenous. This paper will argue that this regime hides behind its bonhomie and desire for real fairness, a recurrent form of democratic deficit that enshrines under the guise of majority rule, the collective autocracy of the dominant nation. This takes the form of a disguised and sweet dictatorship of the majority that endorses the celebration of individual rights, freedom of expression and individualism, and even the relative protection of minorities, but that at the same time, imposes severe limits to the possibilities of minority communities political representation. Non territorial autonomy in its different forms and shapes is one of the many democratic reactions to this imposition. Non territorial autonomy (NTA) is not a specific model for the incorporation of minorities or dispersed communities, nor does it have a common prescription or line of action. It is a generic form of collective rights and collective representation which aims to share sovereignty between different communities. This links with the idea that democracy must have not one but many constituencies, and therefore become a “demoicracy” a democracy of the demoi, a plural and diverse conglomerate of democratic communities and constituencies. This model is being used by contemporary writers to explain the architecture of the European Union, and it is argued here that the convergence between NTA and demoicracy opens the possibilities for the solution of the democratic deficit of liberal democracy within the borders of the nation state and a considerable expansion of democracy and democratic theory
