Felix Heidenreich: Krise, Erosion, Niedergang der Demokratie – oder doch ein ganz normales Unbehagen?

Abstract

Crisis, Erosion, Decline of Democracy – or Just the Usual Malaise?
There is disagreement in Political Theory about whether democracy is actually in crisis or if
expectations concerning democracy have reached an unrealistic level and populist movements
actually feed democracy by demanding responsiveness from elites. A closer look at contemporary
research on the crisis of democracy shows that the core of the debate can be distilled within the
following metaphors and concepts: Whereas a crisis (like in a medical case) is a moment of decision,
an erosion can be a long and imperceptible process. A decline (just as in the decline of a company)
can be turned around by hard decisions; a malaise however seems to imply (just as in Freud’s
“Civilization and its Discontents”) a mature way of coping with inevitable dissatisfaction.

Besprochen werden u. a.: Diamond, L./Plattner, M. F. (Hrsg.): Democracy in Decline? (408); Merkel, W.
(Hrsg.): Demokratie und Krise (404)