Considerations on the crisis of democracy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2026.e109347Keywords:
democracy, crisis, the political, representationAbstract
Is liberal democracy in crisis? The question above guides this reflection, which unfolds in two parts, to examine how the two anchors of liberal democracy, the market and political representation, are faring. Let us suggest that the separation between democracy and the market could reestablish politics as an instrument of decision-making, thereby strengthening the institutions of representation. Broadly speaking, the present reflection analyzes democratic theories developed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to assess the extent to which they can still help us understand the current scenario.
References
ARAUJO, Cicero. Representação, retrato e drama. In: Lua Nova, São Paulo, v. 67, p. 229-260, 2006.
BENHABIB, S. Toward a deliberative model of democratic legitimacy. In: BENHABIB, S (Ed.), Democracy and difference: contesting the boundaries of the political. Princeton University Press, 1996.
COHEN, Joshua. Deliberation and democracy legitimacy. In: HAMLIN, A.; PETIT, P. (orgs). The good policy: normative analysis of the State. Routledge, in Association with the Open University, 1989.
BRUM TORRES, J. C. Ontem e hoje. Revista Kriterion, Belo Horizonte, Edição Especial, Jan./2021, p. 151-178, 1968.
ELLIOTT, Kevin. Democracy for busy people. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2023.
HABERMAS, Jürgen. Between facts and norms: contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. Translated by William Rehg. MIT Press, 1996.
HABERMAS, Jürgen. A new structural transformation of the public sphere and deliberative politics. Cambridge: Polity, 2023.
HONNETH, Axel. Freedom’s right: the social foundations of democratic life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014.
HONNETH, Axel. The idea of socialism: towards a renewal. Cambridge; Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2017.
KYMLICKA, Will. Multicultural citizenship. Nova York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
LEFORT, Claude. L’invention démocratique: les limites du totalitarisme. Paris: Seuil, 1981
LOCKE, John. Two treatises of government. Edited by Peter Laslett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
LEVITSKY, Steven; ZIBLATT, Daniel. How democracies die. New York: Broadway Books, 2018.
MANIN, Bernard. Principes du gouvernement représentatif. Paris: Calmann‐Lévy, 1995.
MANIN, Bernard; PRZEWORSKI, Adam; STOKES, Susan. Élections et représentation. In: PRZEWORSKI, Adam; STOKES, Susan; MANIN, Bernard (dir.). Démocratie, responsabilité et représentation. Paris: Seuil, 1999.
MANIN, B. Legitimidade e deliberação política. In: WERLE, D. L.; MELO, R. S. (orgs). Democracia deliberativa. São Paulo: Editora Singular, Esfera Pública, 2007.
MOUFFE, Chantal. The return of the political. London; New York: Verso, 1993.
MOUNK, Yascha. The people vs. democracy: why our freedom is in danger and how to save it. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
NOBRE, Marcos. Limites da democracia: de junho de 2013 ao governo Bolsonaro. São Paulo: Editoria Todavia, 2022.
PITKIN, Hanna F. Representation. In: BALL, Terence; FARR, James; HANSON, Russell (eds.). Political innovation and conceptual change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
ROSANVALLON, Pierre. Le libéralisme économique: histoire de l'idée de marché. Paris: Le Seuil, 1979.
ROSANVALLON, Pierre. Le siècle du populisme: histoire, théorie, critique. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2020.
STREECK, Wolfgang. Buying time: the delayed crisis of democratic capitalism. New York: Verso Books, 2013.
TAYLOR, Charles. Philosophical arguments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
TAYLOR, C; NANZ, P; TAYLOR, M. B. Reconstructing democracy: how citizens are building from the ground up. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020.
URBINATI, Nadia. Representative democracy: principles and genealogy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
URBINATI, Nadia. Democracy disfigured: opinion, truth, and the people. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.
YOUNG, Iris Marion. Inclusion and democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Odair Camati
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and publication rights over their works, without restrictions.
Upon submitting their work, authors grant ethic@ the exclusive right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International License. This license allows third parties to remix, adapt, and build upon the published work, provided that proper credit is given to the authorship and to the original publication in this journal.
Authors are also permitted to enter into additional contracts, separately, for the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work in this journal (for example: deposit in an institutional repository, make it available on a personal website, publish translations, or include it as a book chapter), provided that authorship and the initial publication in ethic@ are acknowledged.
