Changing the democratic subject: group-based democracy

Daryl Glaser

Chapter 8 in The Substance in Liberal Democracy, 2026, pp 137-156 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Liberal democracy posits the individual as the basic unit of political membership and representation. Individuation facilitates equal representation for all, at least in formal terms – with each individual counting as one and all individuals enjoying the same standardised rights. Yet this formal equality of individuals has come under criticism for lacking democratic substance in at least two respects. First, it is said to root representation in arithmetically defined territorial constituencies rather than in real or organic constituencies. Second, it is said to disguise substantive inequalities between groups. The remedy for many is some combination of group self-government, group representation and group rights. But the groups referred to in such proposals can vary widely, from ascriptive communities such as ethnic groups to associations bringing together people who perform similar economic functions. Representational and decision-making schemes arising from such thinking include group quotas and seats, consociationalism, federalism, associative democracy and functional democracy. Liberal democracy, conceived as ideologically open proceduralism, has various difficulties with these schemes. Its practitioners worry that they render representation indirect and non-proportional (when it passes via group intermediaries), indulge internally repressive group self-government, foster sectional and parochial politics, and oversee the co-option of civil society into the state. They also privilege bodies, functions and locations over ideological opinions. For these and other reasons, liberal democracy insists on the primacy of direct individual representation. Having said that, it can accommodate group representation on various terms discussed in the chapter. One scheme, proportional electoral representation, is arguably the best way to satisfy the imperatives of both individual and group representation.

Keywords: Group representation; Proportional representation; Consociationalism; Federalism; Associative democracy; Functional democracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035333011
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