Tag: Democracy

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.”

The US and UK as Embedded Democracies

I have a new post out for Edinburgh University Press’ blog on my new book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies. There’s no paywall. You can read it here: https://euppublishingblog.com/2025/01/22/us-uk-embedded-democracies/

It offers a short introduction to the concept of an “embedded democracy,” which plays a central role in the new book. That book is available here: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-legitimacy-in-liberal-democracies.html

My Second Book

I have another book coming out – Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies. In this book I develop a theory of legitimacy to explain the crisis of liberal democracy in established democracies, like the United Kingdom and the United States. In these countries there is deep dissatisfaction with political procedures, yet no credible alternatives have emerged. Without alternatives, the crisis cannot produce revolution. Instead, I suggest that the disagreements that ordinarily lead to political violence instead proliferate throughout the state and society. As the distinction between legitimacy and ideology blurs, efforts to generate legitimacy instead generate greater inequality, pluralism, and gridlock. As different factions try to save democracy in radically different ways, diverse advocates of democracy get in each other’s way and even begin to appear authoritarian to one another. I depict a legitimacy crisis rife with state capacity problems, in which citizens tell each other many conflicting legitimation stories as they search for ways to live with a dissatisfying political system they cannot replace. The result is a legitimation hydra – a state that is burdened by an excess of narratives, that struggles to take any action at all.

The book will be out with Edinburgh University Press this November. There’s a discount code – “NEW30” – that can be used to get 30% off if you preorder the book directly from EUP. That can be done here:

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

The cover was done by Michael Scowden. Michael used to work as art director with my dad when my dad was editor-in-chief of a magazine about process automation called Control. As my dad died of prostate cancer in 2021 at age 67, it’s wonderful to have a cover from Michael. He’s really terrific, and I love what he did for the book. Check it out: