Democracy without Politics
by Steven Bilakovics (Author)
For many years in Western democracies, politics and
politicians have been thought of with contempt by the majority of citizens.
Steven Bilakovics argues that this disdain of politics follows from neither the
discontents of our liberal political system nor from the preoccupations of a
consumer society. Extending Tocqueville's analysis of the modern democratic way
of life, he traces the sources of political cynicism to democracy itself.
Democratic society's characteristic openness - its promise of transcendent
freedom and unlimited possibility - renders the everyday politics of argument
and persuasion absurd by comparison. Persuasion is devalued, self-interest or
self-expression take the place of argument, and political life is diminished by
the absence of mediating talk. Bilakovics sees this trend across the political
landscape - in the clashing authenticities of the 'culture war,' the perennial
pursuit of the political outsider to set things right again, the call for a
postpartisan politics, rising demands on government alongside falling
expectations of what government can do, and a political rhetoric that is at
once petty and hyperbolic. To work toward a politics that is both civil and
vital, Bilakovics calls on us to recognize ourselves as citizens still capable
of persuading and being persuaded in turn.
