Other words, other possibilities: the case for studying words other than "democracy" for the purpose of "democratization"

"Democracy", as a word, has blinded the discipline for advancing research on the theme of popular self-rule / self-governance / living freely. And that is because the word "democracy" has become, for many, synonymous with either elections and voting, deliberation and reason, liberalism and representation, or protest and rebellion. Whilst the advancement of the theories or practices of, say, voting, deliberation, representation, or protest remains crucial, focusing solely on them, and especially so in a manner that relies on certain Western definitions and values associated with them, restricts the capacity to consider their Other dynamics. It also cuts from view completely different approaches to, for example, living without tyranny, hierarchy or autocracy and despotism. In this essay, I intend to demonstrate that the global multilinguistic record of ideas provides such a conceptual richness for the advancement of research on the themes of popular self-rule / self-governance / living freely (here taken to mean "democratization"), that it is indecent, even intellectual corrupt, for our discipline to continue without bringing them evermore into view.