LET’S GO RULE
EDITORIAL
One of the reasons for the “democratic fatigue syndrome,” as Van Reybrouck calls it, might be an extreme and paradoxical form of “dis-intermediation.” The latter would consist not in the endorsement of a (real or alleged) leader to the detriment of some intermediary units (churches, unions, parties, etc.) but rather in the coveted elimination of the duality of representatives and represented. Leggi tutto »
We live in times shaped by the conviction that periodic ‘free and fair’ elections are the heart and soul of democracy. Since 1945, when only a dozen parliamentary democracies were left on our planet, elections have come to be seen widely as the best way of forming good governments, sometimes even as a ‘timeless’ and non-negotiable feature of political life. Article 21 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in December 1948, famously set the standard: ‘The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage’. Leggi tutto »
This article presents the case for the defence of a beleaguered creature in the twenty-first century: elections. It looks first at the arguments against elections, recently articulated by David Van Reybrouk. It then revises the value of representation to restate the central place elections have had and ought to have in modern democracies. It does so particularly by highlighting Nadia Urbinati’s important contribution to our understanding of representative democracies. Leggi tutto »
Recent elections in Western democracies have brought into question the relationship between electoral mechanisms and democracy. I argue that while democratic impulses can be identified in political systems where elections either do not take place or are flawed, such impulses cannot be measured and are therefore destined to become the subject of ideological contestation. Leggi tutto »