Abstract
In view of the worrying erosion of democratic regimes that were previously considered stable, there is an increasing need for theory-based reflection on democracy. The academic (sub-)discipline of democratic theory appears to be particularly suitable to meeting this need. It is concerned with justifying democratic principles, the explanation of the functioning of democratic regimes and the identification of possibilities for their improvement. As a result, efforts to clarify the normative essence of democracy and to look for ways out of its current crisis are intensifying within democratic theory. However, the continuing upswing in democratic theory and the abundance of theoretically elaborated ideas for “democratic innovation” conceal the poor state in which democratic theory finds itself. The counterargument put forward in this talk is that expectations of democratic theory are being disappointed because democratic theory itself is in crisis. In a process I call the obsolescence of democracy, it is losing its scholarly and practical plausibility. As a result, the prevailing approaches within democratic theory are neither able to explain the current crisis nor to show ways out of it.
Short bio
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Name |
Dr. Veith Selk |
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Position |
Ass. Prof./Lecturer |
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Affiliation |
University of Economics Vienna/TU Darmstadt |
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Research focus |
Democratic theory, populism, Politics in socio-technical transformation, pragmatism, History of political ideas (history of political theories and political thought), Fear and politics |
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relevant Publications |
Selk, Veith. 2023. Demokratiedämmerung. Eine Kritik der Demokratietheorie. [Dawn of democracy: A critique of democratic theory] Berlin: Suhrkamp. Selk, Veith und Olaf Jann. 2023. Moralische Gentrifizierung. Soziologische Zeitdiagnostik und politische Theorie negativer Emotionen. [Moral gentrification: Sociological diagnostics and the political theory of negative emotions] Frankfurt: Campus. Veith Selk (Eds.). 2020. Die Erosion der Demokratie: Beiträge von Michael Th. Greven zur kritischen Demokratietheorie. [The erosion of democracy: Michael Th. Greven’s contribution to critical democratic theory] Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien. (with Rüb, Friedbert W. and Rieke Trimev) Veith Selk. 2017. Theorien des Populismus zur Einführung. [An introduction to populism theories] Hamburg: Junius. (with Jörke, Dirk) Selk, Veith. 2016. Das Regieren der Angst. Eine politische Ideengeschichte von der Tyrannis bis zum Leviathan. [Governing fear: The political history from the tyrannis to the leviathan] Hannover: Verlag Wehrhahn. |
