This critical commentary discusses Stephan Lessenich's recent contribution to the 2019 German book, What's Wrong with Democracy? A Debate with Klaus Dörre, Nancy Fraser, Stephan Lessenich and Hartmut Rosa, edited by H. Ketterer and K. Becker
Wolfgang Merkel and Jean-Paul Gagnon
Gagnon: How do you define democracy? Merkel: In my definition I try to find a middle way between minimalist and maximalist definitions of democracy. Minimalism, as we know it, from Joseph Schumpeter (2013) , Anthony Downs (1957) , but also Adam
Lauri Rapeli and Inga Saikkonen
Introduction Democracy, understood as electoral democracy based on representation, was not at its strongest when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The Freedom House organization, which has monitored global democracy for decades, reported in 2020 that
Common Democracy
Political Representation beyond Representative Democracy
Alexandros Kioupkiolis
The paradox of a deep malaise of liberal democracy at the time of its globalization has been a leitmotif of much political thinking since the late 1990s (see, e.g., Crouch 2004 ; Stoker 2006 ). Representation, “the foundational idea of modern
Times of Democracy
The Unavoidable Democracy of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Denmark
Anne Engelst Nørgaard
's flag and victory is already won in the sense that everywhere, this spirit is sensed as a force that both claims victory and has the means to triumph. This mighty spirit is the spirit of Democracy.” — Folket , 6 November 1848 During the revolutions
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2019
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 23–45
Samuel Moyn and Jean-Paul Gagnon
Jean-Paul Gagnon: How do you define democracy? Samuel Moyn: You are starting with an almost impossible question! The kind of experiential approach I support to the history of democracy would have to start with the plurality of understandings
Marcos S. Scauso, Garrett FitzGerald, Arlene B. Tickner, Navnita Chadha Behera, Chengxin Pan, Chih-yu Shih, and Kosuke Shimizu
. Higher mortality rates among racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous communities, the poor, and the elderly, have exposed the deeply embedded and intersectional nature of inequality among many of the world's oldest democracies. Indeed, the pandemic has
Ulrike Guérot and Michael Hunklinger
least due to the fact that there is no such thing as a real European democracy. COVID-19 offers an opportunity to pause for a moment and think about what a post-COVID-19 European democracy could look like— if the union survives the virus. To do this
2,234 Descriptions of Democracy
An Update to Democracy’s Ontological Pluralism
Jean-Paul Gagnon
In 2010 Milja Kurki explained that although scholars recognize that democracy is described in a variety of ways, they do not typically engage with its many and diverse descriptions. My aim in this agenda-setting research note is to tackle this quandary by first providing a minimum empirical account of democracy’s descriptions (i.e., a catalogue of 2,234 adjectives that have been used to describe democracy) and secondly by suggesting what democracy studies may gain by compiling this information. I argue that the catalogue of descriptors be applied in four ways: (1) drilling down into the meaning of each description, (2) making taxonomies, (3) rethinking the phenomenology of democracy, and (4) visualizing democracy’s big data. Each of the four applications and their significance is explained in turn. This research note ends by looking back on the catalogue and its four applications.
Creating the People as ‘One’?
On Democracy and Its Other
Marta Nunes da Costa
What is democracy? What are its premises, its necessary conditions and its conditions of possibility? What are its limits? These are some of the questions that seem apparently straightforward to answer – we all recognise democracy, defined by its
