Three leading thinkers analyze the erosion of democracy's social foundations and call for a movement to reduce inequality, strengthen inclusive solidarity, empower citizens, and reclaim pursuit of the public good.
Democracy is in trouble. Populism is a common scapegoat but not the root cause. More basic are social and economic transformations eroding the foundations of democracy, ruling elites trying to lock in their own privilege, and cultural perversions like making individualistic freedom the enemy of democracy's other crucial ideals of equality and solidarity. In Degenerations of Democracy three of our most prominent intellectuals investigate democracy gone awry, locate our points of fracture, and suggest paths to democratic renewal.
In Charles Taylor's phrase, democracy is a process, not an end state. Taylor documents creeping disempowerment of citizens, failures of inclusion, and widespread efforts to suppress democratic participation, and he calls for renewing community. Craig Calhoun explores the impact of disruption, inequality, and transformation in democracy's social foundations. He reminds us that democracies depend on republican constitutions as well as popular will, and that solidarity and voice must be achieved at large scales as well as locally.
Taylor and Calhoun together examine how ideals like meritocracy and authenticity have become problems for equality and solidarity, the need for stronger articulation of the idea of public good, and the challenges of thinking big without always thinking centralization.
Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar points out that even well-designed institutions will not integrate everyone, and inequality and precarity make matters worse. He calls for democracies to be prepared for violence and disorder at their margins-and to treat them with justice, not oppression.
The authors call for bold action building on projects like Black Lives Matter and the Green New Deal. Policy is not enough to save democracy; it will take movements.
Three leading thinkers analyze the erosion of democracy's social foundations and call for a movement to reduce inequality, strengthen inclusive solidarity, empower citizens, and reclaim pursuit of the public good.
Democracy is in trouble. Populism is a common scapegoat but not the root cause. More basic are social and economic transformations eroding the foundations of democracy, ruling elites trying to lock in their own privilege, and cultural perversions like making individualistic freedom the enemy of democracy's other crucial ideals of equality and solidarity. In Degenerations of Democracy three of our most prominent intellectuals investigate democracy gone awry, locate our points of fracture, and suggest paths to democratic renewal.
In Charles Taylor's phrase, democracy is a process, not an end state. Taylor documents creeping disempowerment of citizens, failures of inclusion, and widespread efforts to suppress democratic participation, and he calls for renewing community. Craig Calhoun explores the impact of disruption, inequality, and transformation in democracy's social foundations. He reminds us that democracies depend on republican constitutions as well as popular will, and that solidarity and voice must be achieved at large scales as well as locally.
Taylor and Calhoun together examine how ideals like meritocracy and authenticity have become problems for equality and solidarity, the need for stronger articulation of the idea of public good, and the challenges of thinking big without always thinking centralization.
Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar points out that even well-designed institutions will not integrate everyone, and inequality and precarity make matters worse. He calls for democracies to be prepared for violence and disorder at their margins-and to treat them with justice, not oppression.
The authors call for bold action building on projects like Black Lives Matter and the Green New Deal. Policy is not enough to save democracy; it will take movements.
Craig Calhoun is University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University and was previously Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and President of the SSRC. His books include The Roots of Radicalism and Nations Matter. Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar is Director of the Center for Transcultural Studies and Professor in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Northwestern University, where he also directs the Center for Global Culture and Communication. For many years he was editor of the influential journal Public Culture. Charles Taylor is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University. Author of The Language Animal, Sources of the Self, The Ethics of Authenticity, and A Secular Age, he has received many honors, including the Templeton Prize, the Berggruen Prize, and membership in the Order of Canada.
Many scholars have traced the crisis of Western liberal democracy
to the rise of authoritarian and populist leaders. Three
distinguished theorists argue that the problems run deeper…Wealth
inequality and economic stagnation have exacerbated political
divisions, but the bigger problem is the fraying of the civic
solidarity that knits citizens together across lines of
difference.
*Foreign Affairs*
[The authors] set out to dissect in detail the long-term
degenerations of the democratic structures that have occurred in
three major democratic countries: the United States, Canada and
India…Stimulating and refreshing.
*Democratization*
Democracies around the world are in crisis. This important book by
three social theorists…analyzes the underlying causes of these
interrelated crises, focusing mostly on the United States, Europe,
and India…At stake are the quality of public life, social
institutions, and, in many cases, people’s lives.
*Critical Theology*
Written by three world-class thinkers, the book provides a fresh
and well-argued diagnosis of what must be done to save democracy
from itself. No other book can offer something remotely similar to
what this book has to offer in terms of historical detail,
conceptual argument, moral outlook, and political acuity.
*Lars Tønder, University of Copenhagen*
Democracy in the twenty-first century is degenerating from within
rather than being attacked externally as was totalitarianism. We
consequently need to reinvent it, not just preserve it. This book
defines the task ahead of us. Written by three key figures of
political philosophy and social theory, it makes a conceptually
powerful contribution to the rebuilding of democracy at a time when
the sovereignty of the people and the promise of equality are
understood in a trivializing way by populist governments and
neoliberal regimes.
*Pierre Rosanvallon, author of Good Government: Democracy beyond
Elections*
Questions about what ails democracy today get a new lease on life
in this captivating book. Calhoun, Gaonkar, and Taylor blend their
voices well to produce a series of deep and insightful reflections
remarkable for their combination of lucid prose, critical
diagnoses, reasoned optimism, and perspectives that are strikingly
fresh. A must-read for all students of contemporary politics.
*Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of The Climate of History in a
Planetary Age*
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