The Paradoxical Perception of Contemporary Democracy, and the Question of its Future

Jean‐Marc Coicaud

Global Policy, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 110-121

Abstract: This article explores the perception of democracy today, at the national and international levels. This perception is rather paradoxical. On the one hand, democracy is celebrated. As such it functions as a benchmark of political legitimacy. On the other hand, it is criticized. The article provides explanations for this state of affairs. Among the explanations put forward in order to account for the criticisms of democracy the article stresses the deepening of economic inequalities and a sense of social alienation that has been growing in recent years among the people that globalization and its associated policies are affecting negatively. For the way forward the article offers suggestions in order to improve the reputation and reality of democracy. In this regard it argues that the possibility to improve democracy, both at the national and international levels, is to a large extent based on making it more inclusive (especially economically speaking) and reflective.

Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12594

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:glopol:v:10:y:2019:i:1:p:110-121

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1758-5880

Access Statistics for this article

Global Policy is currently edited by David Held, Patrick Dunleavy and Eva-Maria Nag

More articles in Global Policy from London School of Economics and Political Science Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().