2017Studies in Media and CommunicationOpen access

Democracy without Politics: Why Democracy Can Seriously Harm Democracy

Daniel Innerárity

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Abstract

The main argument of this paper is directed against the thesis that we are in a post-democratic era. I consider that we are rather in a post-political era, that is to say, one in which the demands expressed in moments of democratic explosion do not often find a political channel that translates them into effective transformations. To this is added the fact that some of the current forms of activism have given rise to what could be called an "intermittent citizenship" that has seduced some with the possibility of establishing that negative sovereignty at the core of the construction of the general will, which has depolitizing effects. This is the context in which the great rift between technocratic reasons and populist reasons has been constituted. I end up defending a concept of "indirect democracy" or "complex democracy" that attempts to politically integrate both moments.

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The main argument of this paper is directed against the thesis that we are in a post-democratic era. I consider that we are rather in a post-political era, that is to say, one in which the demands expressed in moments of democratic explosion do not often find a political channel that translates them into effective transformations. To this is added the fact that some of the current forms of activism have given rise to what could be called an "intermittent citizenship" that has seduced some with the possibility of establishing that negative sovereignty at the core of the construction of the general will, which has depolitizing effects. This is the context in which the great rift between technocratic reasons and populist reasons has been constituted. I end up defending a concept of "indirect democracy" or "complex democracy" that attempts to politically integrate both moments.

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Available abstract

The main argument of this paper is directed against the thesis that we are in a post-democratic era. I consider that we are rather in a post-political era, that is to say, one in which the demands expressed in moments of democratic explosion do not often find a political channel that translates them into effective transformations. To this is added the fact that some of the current forms of activism have given rise to what could be called an "intermittent citizenship" that has seduced some with the possibility of establishing that negative sovereignty at the core of the construction of the general will, which has depolitizing effects. This is the context in which the great rift between technocratic reasons and populist reasons has been constituted. I end up defending a concept of "indirect democracy" or "complex democracy" that attempts to politically integrate both moments.

Key concepts: Democracy, Technocracy, Politics, Argument (complex analysis), Context (archaeology), Sovereignty, Political economy, Political science

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