The Paradoxical Perception of Contemporary Democracy, and the Question of its Future
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12594 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
The Paradoxical Perception of Contemporary
Democracy, and the Question of its Future
Jean-Marc Coicaud
Rutgers University
Abstract
This article explores the perception of democracy today, at the national and international levels. This perception is rather para-
doxical. 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 alien-
ation that has been growing in recent years among the people that globalization and its associated policies are affecting neg-
atively. 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.
Policy Implications
•It is both at the domestic and international levels that measures have to be taken in order to address and hopefully miti-
gate the problems democracy, especially in the West, is encountering.
•At the domestic level, in the West, addressing the crisis of political representation is imperative. New mechanisms have to
be found to make the participation and representation of people more vibrant and meaningful. This calls for revisiting the
culture of political parties and changing the attitude of political elites.
•Again at the domestic level in the West, there is the need to put in place economic policies that could stop the growing
inequalities between rich and poor.
•At the international level, the structure of the global political economy has to be rethought. Globalization is now viewed
in the West as creating much economic disparities. It has also encouraged industrial delocalization. This has to be
addressed.
The paradoxical perception of democracy
The current perception of democracy is quite paradoxical:
on the one hand, as a normative paradigm, it continues to
be by and large celebrated; on the other hand, the way
democracy functions, or does not function has become
heavily criticized, to the point that the idea of democracy
has itself become contested.
Democratic paradigm celebrated
The celebration of democracy,
1
defined at the most basic
level as a type of governmental regime and organization of
society where the power of the executive is constrained, citi-
zens participate in the exercise of power and have their
rights guaranteed,
2
is on display both at the national and
international levels.
At the national level, democracy serves as a benchmark
of legitimacy. It remains the norm or ‘gold standard’against
which other types of regimes tend to be evaluated and
ranked. Democracy is the norm in countries and regions of
the world where it has emerged, and flourished, as the
modern political and legal culture, essentially in the Western
world. But it is also a goal to be achieved in many other
parts of the world where democracy continues to inspire
people. Hence the fact, for instance, that when former colo-
nies became independent in the aftermath of World War II,
embracing democracy, at least formally, was for many of
them a rather natural move.
3
This is not to say that the whole world now lives under
democratic rule and that all democratic regimes are perfect.
But, as Figure 1 indicates for the year 2016,
4
a significant
number of countries are, to varying degrees, presently gov-
erned by regimes labeled as democratic.
At the international level, democracy has also a strong
appeal. In the contemporary era, most of the normative and
institutional recommendations put forward to make the world
better managed and altogether better refer, directly or indi-
rectly, to democratic modes of global governance and ask for
more democratic modes of global governance. In this regard,
even the regimes that domestically are not democratic call for
more democracy at the international level, which entails,
among other things, better levels of representation and par-
ticipation in international institutions and their decision-mak-
ing processes. An example of this phenomenon is China. As a
result, in efforts to reform international organizations,
©2019 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Global Policy (2019) 10:1 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12594
Global Policy Volume 10 . Issue 1 . February 2019
110
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