Vital thinking of what Democracy is
Jan-Werner Muller, political philosopher and a German teaching history and political philosophy for Princeton University, in his latest Democracy Rules, gives a brisk account about the state of liberal democracy.
As the cold war ended the hopes for democracy’s rapid spread to non-democracies dwindled. Concern for its health grew amid backsliding in existing democracies notably Brazil, India, Turkey or in new democracies sheltered within the EU (Hungary, Poland).
The lure of performance legitimacy, as exemplified by China, that is the undemocratic bargain in which illiberal, one party control is put up with in return for broader prosperity and rising wellbeing.
Muller looks at how liberal democracy is going wrong in its historic core, Europe and the US.
We need to separate fake from genuine democracy. Phoney democrats are typified by today’s right wing populists., as the pose tribunes of people against the elites whereas they are in fact party-political “outs”, elite networkers from good universities and easy backgrounds aiming to displace the “ins”.
Right wing populism, Muller warns although not likely to overthrow democracy but exploit and corrode democracy.
Genuine democrats according to Muller, nobody may be denied standing as a free and equal citizen; neither “nation”, “people” nor “citizen” should be defined in racial or ethnic terms, and democracies requires losers , but losers as a loyal opposition or government in waiting, they need a chance to be winners next time.
According to Muller “Liberty, equality, uncertainty”, as democracy brings disagreement, dissent and at the limit, disobedience.
Muller sees the virtues of direct democracy but accepts that representative, kind, where voters send politicians in effect govern for them, is needed in complex societies with a high division of labour. Governments in representative democracy must be open, responsive and callable to account, but not so intently or continually that it cannot function.
The collapse of local papers robs people of an eye on government action that touches them most directly on matter that they know most about. Democrats must resist anti-democrat, with illiberal or undemocratic means if needed. Social media spreads unchecked, unedited content.
If social inequality together with the secession of rich and poor are to be addressed democratically, not by force or violence, then argument and procedure are the only ways. So Muller Democrat insists polarisation and tribalism are created by politics and can be undone by politics.
Better regulated parties and press are still the best way to “mobilise those at the bottom and push back against those at the top”.
Muller states how government might be able to be more accessible, autonomous and assessable.
Democracy is founded on three vital principles :Liberty, equality, and also uncertainty. Acknowledging fully the dangers posed by populism, by kleptocratic autocracies like Russia’s and by the digital authoritarianism of Xi, Muller challenges the assumptions made by many liberals defending democracy in recent years. He reveals how the secession of plutocratic elites in the West has undermined much of democracy’s promise. In response we need to re-invigorate our institution, especially political parties and professional media but also make it easier for citizens to mobilise.
Democracy Rules by Jan-Werner Muller, Farrar, Straus and Giroux $27/Allen Lane £20, 256 pages.