The Future of Democracy

European Straits #100

Dear all,

Last week I wrote about the ‘Yellow Vests’ movement and . This week, the political conversation in France has turned into a debate on democracy and citizens’ participation in the government’s process—all the more interesting because democracy has been in a state of crisis for several years now. Is democracy here to stay? And if yes, how will it evolve?

Thoughts on democracy

Democracy as we know it is a fairly recent invention. As I explained in a recent op-ed in Le Monde (paywall, and in French), modern democracy was born in the wake of a discussion dating back to the seventeenth century. In A Grammar of the Multitude (MIT Press, 2004), Italian philosopher Paolo Virno recalls the debate that took place back then between two understandings of individuals within the city. On one side was Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who thought that individuals should renounce their singularity and participate in politics only as the people, “a kind of unit possessing a single will”. On the other s…