A Democrat flanked by great scholars (7)
I believe the answer is:
academe
'a democrat flanked by great scholars' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'a democrat flanked by great' is the wordplay.
'democrat' becomes 'dem' (common abbreviation in US politics).
'flanked by' indicates putting letters inside (other letters go on other side).
'great' becomes 'ace' (ace can informally mean very good).
'a'+'dem'='adem'
'adem' inserted within 'ace' is 'ACADEME'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for academe that I've seen before include "university life" , "place of learning" , "intellectual world" , "The world of scholars" , "learned environment" .)