Where is ‘democracy’ in ‘the most democratic heritage treaty’? An investigation of the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention

The 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention is often celebrated as the Organisation’s most democratic treaty, given its formal recognition of communities as key actors. This article critically examines the meaning and practice of ‘democracy’ within the Convention. In the context of global democratic backsliding, we ask: where is democracy embedded in the Convention’s governance structure, and how is it used and interpreted by different actors? In this article, we distinguish between (1) democracy as a form of political regime; (2) democratic governance, as a set of UN supported values; (3) democratisation of culture, emphasising egalitarian access to cultural goods and institutions; (4) cultural democracy, foregrounding the right of communities and individuals to define, value, and shape culture on their own terms. By using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, we further distinguish operational, collective-choice, and constitutional levels of analysis to trace how diverse forms of democracy manifest across the Convention’s governance. Our findings reveal distinct configurations: democracy emerges as a feature of community practice at the operational level, as a procedural principle in intergovernmental decision-making at the collective-choice level, and as a normative value at the constitutional level.