· 2026· Book chapter
Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism?
- 1,296citations
- 2026year
Short summary
Western societies face growing disaffection with democratic institutions, partly due to dominant political theories that are individualistic and rationalistic, failing to grasp the nature of pluralistic public spheres.
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Key points
- Growing disaffection with democratic institutions is evident in Western societies.
- Liberal democratic societies are ill-equipped to handle this challenge.
- Dominant political theories are individualistic, universalistic, and rationalistic.
- This theoretical framework obscures the nature of a pluralistic public sphere.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
As testified by the increasing success of the extreme right in several countries, western societies are witnessing a growing disaffection with democratic institutions. Such a disaffection may have serious consequences for the future of democracy. Unfortunately, liberal democratic societies are ill-prepared to confront the present challenge, since they are unable to grasp its nature. One of the main reasons for this inability lies in the type of political theory currently in vogue, dominated as it is by an individualistic, uni-versalistic, and rationalistic framework. Such a framework erases the dimension of the political and impedes envisaging in an adequate manner the nature of a pluralistic democratic public sphere.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences