Formwandel der Demokratie

Liberal representative democracies currently constitute quite contradictory entities. On the one hand, there is the weakness of representative political institutions, the success of populist parties, technocratic tendencies and the emergence of illiberal, plebiscitary forms of rule. On the other hand, increasing demands for participation, diverse protest activities and new forms of participation can be discerned. The contributions in this volume reconstruct and discuss these complex and contradictory developments from the perspective of democratic theory in four blocks:

I. The debate on the changing shape of democracy as a subject of democratic theory
II Populism, technocracy and the role of democratic theory
III. New forms of participation, new democracy?
IV. New subjects and new spaces of democracy

In particular, the contributions reflect on the relationship between equality and democracy, plurality and political representation, the role of the public sphere and intermediary structures, and last but not least the legitimacy of borders and membership.

With contributions by
Ingolfur Blühdorn, André Brodocz, Robin Celikates, Catherine Colliot-Thélène, Paula Diehl, Michel Dormal, Micha Knuth, Olaf Jann, Claudia Landwehr, Hans J. Lietzmann, Markus Linden, Anna Meine, Markus Patberg, Garry S. Schaal, Fränze Wilhelm, Julia Schulze-Wessel, Veith Selk, Winfried Thaa and Christian Volk.