On paper only? Embedding democracy

Daryl Glaser

Chapter 3 in The Substance in Liberal Democracy, 2026, pp 38-54 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Chapter three considers the first two senses of five in which a democratic system can be made substantive. First, it considers true or authentic democratic design and the minimum that an authentically democratic design requires. This minimum includes ideologically open proceduralism, a requirement of liberal democracy that will serve as a yardstick in assessing substantiation claims in this and subsequent chapters. The matter of true design is given special salience by the tendency of some regimes to introduce authoritarian measures by democratic or constitutionally correct means. Democratic implementation must first be the implementation of an actually democratic design and not one that, say, invests excessive powers in unelected officers or inscribes ideological outcomes into institutional architecture. Even with the best design, people will be tempted to interpret design formulae in ways that suit their substantive ends, an endemic problem for democracy that needs guarding against. As for implementing designs, this requires rendering the formal actual but also securing an animating minimum of participation by the demos: something that constitutional designers cannot design, at least in a liberal democracy. This poses the question of whether democracy can substantively exist, let alone endure, in the absence of a supportive ‘political culture’. It also raises the question of whether democracy is predicated on constitutional civil rights. Liberals have good reasons to give special protection to certain vital civil rights but liberal democrats should be wary of over-designing societies – including through an expansive list of entrenched civil rights – in ways that preempt ideological choices.

Keywords: Democratic design; Definition of democracy; Procedural democracy; Political culture; Social engineering; Political versus civil rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035333011
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