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This white paper contends that democratic governance in its current institutional form has entered a phase of structural incoherence. Despite the appearance of electoral legitimacy, many contemporary democracies function primarily as instruments of elite interest, enabled by campaign financing systems, regulatory capture, media distortion, and symbolic disenfranchisement. We adopt Johan Galtung’s concept of demockracy to characterize this disjunction between democratic form and life-serving function.
In response, we offer a framework for regenerative democratic integrity grounded in:
- Life-value ethics as the normative constraint on legitimate governance;
- Participatory and deliberative models that empower citizens and distribute voice;
- Structural reforms that increase transparency, reciprocity, and accountability;
- Civic education and media reform to restore epistemic coherence and symbolic agency; and
- A new political ethos of care, coherence, and collective stewardship.
We examine these principles through case studies in the United States, the Global South, and the European Union, showing how corruption of representation manifests across contexts. Finally, we articulate a vision of democracy not as a fixed procedure but as a living, evolving system — capable of coherence, learning, and regeneration.
This paper calls upon policymakers, educators, civil society leaders, and citizens to co-create the next evolution of democratic governance — one that is structurally sound, symbolically coherent, and ethically aligned with the flourishing of life.