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Mental borders

Reimagining representative democracy
by
January–February 2022, no. 439

Democracy Rules by Jan-Werner Müller

Allen Lane, $45 hb, 256 pp

Mental borders

Reimagining representative democracy
by
January–February 2022, no. 439

In this accessible contribution to the burgeoning literature on democracy’s travails and what to do about them, Jan-Werner Müller makes a case for hard borders and fundamental principles. These are not the hard borders desired by authoritarian leaders. Instead, Müller asks us to go back to basics (he uses the concept riduzione verso il principo) to establish some hard borders in our understanding – and hence practice – of democracy. Those borders should be drawn around the fundamental democratic principles of uncertainty and equality. At its most basic, this is a call to reimagine and reinvest in the intermediary institutions of representative democracy – particularly parties and autonomous media – to restore the infrastructure of democratic politics in the developed world.

Ben Wellings reviews 'Democracy Rules' by Jan-Werner Müller

Democracy Rules

by Jan-Werner Müller

Allen Lane, $45 hb, 256 pp

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Comment (1)

  • "Equitable deliberation and decision making."

    Therein lies the rub!

    Only via democracy can equality be pursued, because all other systems deprioritise the individual. The people en masse (so to speak) must own the project, but they require the humility to acknowledge that they must surrender their agency to others. It's a blunt instrument.

    We need more honesty about our flaws on both sides. We also need more bodies outside elected roles to lobby and scrutinise the workings of the system with objectivity.

    Optimism places the onus on you as an individual to do something; to 'hope' is to be passive.
    Posted by Patrick Hockey
    31 December 2021

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