democracy: almost always used as both symbol, more or less opaque, and analytic concept, more or less formal & deliberate. deliberate concepts range from from ideal types to kernels of extension to categorization like 'illiberal' - all strictly nominal tools geared to a particular analysis.
nominally, Athens was or was not a democracy, depending on how a concept is facilitating a particular analysis. symbolically, there never has been nor will ever be a democracy, bc symbols are expressions of finite participation in reality, not shared objects for subjects in the world.
