The Last Argument for Democracy

I have a new open access journal article out in Democratic Theory, “The Last Argument for Democracy: The Unsettling Reliance of Embedded Democracies on Authoritarian Specter Regimes.” As it’s open access, there are no paywalls. You can read it here: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2332889426000333.

Here’s the abstract:

Winston Churchill’s line—that democracy is “the worst form of Government” except all other forms that have been tried—concedes that liberal democracy cannot normatively satisfy us. In the absence of compelling positive arguments, liberals retreat to the Churchill line. But the Churchill line operates by comparing democracy with other, even worse forms of government. In the older embedded democracies, there is no recent direct experience of other forms of government. The Churchill line therefore requires a “specter regime”—a repugnant, yet viable foreign authoritarian regime that can serve as a foil. Without the USSR, it is difficult to find such regimes. Efforts to make China, Russia, and Iran into specter regimes carry enormous costs. But without positive arguments, these costs become hard to avoid.

Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies Affordable Paperback Release

My second book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies, has been released today in paperback. It’s available for under $25 (under £20). You can get it from the publisher:

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-legitimacy-in-liberal-democracies.html

Or you can get it from Amazon: https://a.co/d/0dtSVtsC

This is, in my view, the best thing I have made, at the most affordable price we are likely to see for the foreseeable future. If it does well, I am hopeful that I will be able to publish more affordable books.

Debilitated Democracy: When the Legs Get Ripped Off

I’m pleased to announce that Dirk Jörke and I have published a new journal article in the European Journal of Social Theory. The article is open access, which means you can read it for free, with no paywall or restrictions of any kind. It’s available here: https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310251393914

Here’s the abstract:

“Democratic theorists often argue that democracy is in crisis, but nonetheless maintain democracy can be revived. In contrast, this paper argues that modernisation and democracy have become opposed. Drawing on the work of Michael Th. Greven and Hartmut Rosa, it argues that as modernisation intensifies, it erodes the preconditions necessary for democracy to credibly make the promises long associated with it. This process of debilitation involves ‘ratchet effects’, such that it becomes steadily less possible to restore lost capacities. The regime that remains is like a marathon runner who has been subjected to an amputation – it continues on in a minimalist sense, but its horizons of possibility are irrevocably altered. Because this debilitated democracy is unable to check or manage modernisation, it will remain subject to the process that has debilitated it, further reducing its horizons in the years to come.”