Overview

Democracy is in trouble. Populism is a common scapegoat but not the root cause. More basic are social and economic transformations eroding the foundations of democracy, ruling elites trying to lock in their own privilege, and cultural perversions like making individualistic freedom the enemy of democracy's other crucial ideals of equality and solidarity. In Degenerations of Democracy three of our most prominent intellectuals investigate democracy gone awry, locate our points of fracture, and suggest paths to democratic renewal. In Charles Taylor's phrase, democracy is a process, not an end state. Taylor documents creeping disempowerment of citizens, failures of inclusion, and widespread efforts to suppress democratic participation, and he calls for renewing community. Craig Calhoun explores the impact of disruption, inequality, and transformation in democracy's social foundations. He reminds us that democracies depend on republican constitutions as well as popular will, and that solidarity and voice must be achieved at large scales as well as locally. Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar points out that even well-designed institutions will not integrate everyone, and inequality and precarity make matters worse. He calls for democracies to be prepared for violence and disorder at their margins--and to treat them with justice, not oppression.

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"Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar is director of the Center for Transcultural Studies and professor in rhetoric and public culture at Northwestern University, where he also directs the Center for Global Culture and Communication. For many years he was editor of the influential journal Public Culture. Charles Taylor is Professor Emeritus in the department of philosophy at McGill University and author of Sources of the Self, The Ethics of Authenticity, and A Secular Age. He has received many honors, including the Templeton Prize, the Berggruen Prize, and membership in the Order of Canada. Craig Calhoun is university professor of social sciences at Arizona State University and was previously director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and president of the SSRC. His books include The Roots of Radicalism and Nations Matter. Adam Barr, a recovering lawyer, former golf industry executive, former singing telegram messenger, and former print and television reporter, now bends the energy of all those ""formers"" toward his passion for acting and singing. He enjoys reading, rowing, baseball, music, cooking, wine, and cooking with wine while music is playing. He lives near New York City with his family."

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