Discursive constructions of the demos as an expression of democratic change

The paper starts from the assumption that reinterpretations of democracy shape current (un)democratic change and that a gendered and intersectional dimension is crucial to this process. For example, we currently see that political leaders pushing forward autocratization such as Trump and Orban do not openly attack democracy, but re-interpret it, reframing its basic norms and principles and even claiming to “save” democracy. The paper scrutinizes such re-interpretations by investigating how they manifest in constructions of the demos and the representative claims they convey. It views them as an integral part of a discursive struggle over the meaning of democracy in historical and contemporary contexts. Overall, the research perspective suggests that this analytical focus sheds light on the ‘grey zone’ of democratic change that precedes institutional changes, drawing on political theory of democratic change as well as on political culture research (Urbinati 2019; Müller 2016; Wunsch 2025). The analysis is based on empirical analyses of parliamentary debate in postwar Austria and on illustrative examples of transnational (digital) media discourse. It is located at the interface between democratic theory and empirical democracy research, employing i.e. Critical Discourse Analysis, politolinguistic and conceptual history.