Indigenous democracy: approaches to the definition and its possible use in the Russian research area

The paper discusses the concept of indigenous democracy, the aspects of its application in the international studies as well as the theoretical differences between the indigenous democracy and such terms as the local democracy and local self-government. On the one hand, the international researchers show that the indigenous democracy reflects the nature of political relations in local communities. In addition, it is a part of the discourse about Western and non-Western democracy. On the other hand, it is used in the context of indigenous communities, decision-making and conflict resolution in traditional societies. If the first approach is universal, the second one is based on such notions as ethnicity and indigenous peoples. Besides, this term can be used while examining the local communities and the problems of indigenous peoples in Russia.