Speaker: Yamamoto Kei

Abtract

“Twisting Plebiscite Democracy into Radical Democratic Politics”

In this presentation, I will examine the concept of “plebiscite democracy.” Plebiscitarianism generally refers to the process by which the populace grants approval to decisions or proposals made by leaders through voting or acclamation, and plebiscite democracy is understood as a form of democracy based on this mechanism. As Nadia Urbinati points out, while democracy is often associated with the model of ancient Athens, plebiscite democracy is characterized by its reference to the Roman Forum. In this model, the populace gives its assent to proposals (already decided) put forward by tribunes (Urbinati 2021: 211-212). As I will demonstrate, “plebiscite democracy” is generally considered quite dubious as a theory of democracy. However, it is also true that this form of democracy holds a certain degree of reality in the current media environment. Therefore, I shall introduce the concept of “followership” to explore ways of taming “plebiscite democracy.” By doing this, I attmpt to show that this form of democracy can be compatible with a certain type of radical democratic politics.

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