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  1. Institutions, historical development and meanings of direct democracy
  2. In today’s welfare state, decentralized governance has modern meanings, as we have illustrated using the example of public health: it is more responsive to the different values and preferences of different peoples.

- Swiss Democracy by Wolf Linder

The word meaning have some definitions on Cambridge Dictionary:

a) The meaning of something is what it expresses or represents.
b) Importance or value.

And on Merriam Webster:

a) Something meant or intended : AIM

My question is: What does the word "meanings" mean in above two sentences?

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  • Please follow the rules and tell us the source and author of these phrases. Did you write them or did someone else - who? Do you have a link to the original text?
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Feb 1, 2021 at 23:14
  • @chasly-supportsMonica I added the source of this phrases. Thank you for reminding.
    – 1amroff
    Feb 2, 2021 at 6:56
  • Does "meaning" imply "aims" - The auxiliary verb "do" always takes the bare infinitive in the main verb. I've edited your title :-)
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Feb 2, 2021 at 12:33

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Institutions, historical development and meanings of direct democracy

What do the words "direct democracy" mean? How do we define direct democracy? Also how do the people experience direct democracy. What does it mean to them in terms of material wealth, spiritual wellbeing etc. Does it mean they trust the system of government?

In today’s welfare state, decentralized governance has modern meanings, as we have illustrated using the example of public health: it is more responsive to the different values and preferences of different peoples.

"more responsive" is a comparative, but compared with what? Presumably responsiveness means that the citizens feel better about how the system works than they used to.

Does this help or should I word it differently?

mean verb
2: to serve or intend to convey, show, or indicate : SIGNIFY
a red sky means rain
3: to have importance to the degree of
health means everything
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mean

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Reading this in context, it seems clear that is not referring to just the dictionary definition, but something deeper.

By analogy we often talk about the "meaning of Christmas", which is something more than food, and fun, but is spiritual.

Here it seems to be talking about the intentions and implications of direct democracy. It looks to understand the term more deeply.

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