Overview

How does one revitalize democracy in times of crisis? Democracy is today challenged by populism and elitism, as well as by the resurgence of new forms of authoritarianism. The Spirit of Democracy: Corruption, Disintegration, Renewal shows that while we have good reasons to worry about the corruption of democratic practices and ideals, these worries are often attributable to questionable assumptions about what democracy is. Drawing on Montesquieu's classical work on the spirit of laws, the book sets out to reconceive the ways in which we understand and conceptualise modern democracy: from sovereignty to spirit. According to Montesquieu, different political forms are animated and sustained by different spirits: a republic by virtue, a monarchy by honour, and a despotic form by fear. This book argues that modern democracy is a sui generis political form animated and sustained by a spirit of emancipation. The removal of divine, natural, and historical authorities in political affairs unleashes a fundamental uncertainty about the purpose and direction of society. In a democracy, we respond to that uncertainty by sharing and dividing it equally. It emancipates us from a state of self-incurred tutelage. Based on this argument, the book develops a new theoretical framework for studying the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy: what it is, how it begins, and where in society it plays out.

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9780192898869

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Reviews

"As democracy enters another period of crisis, threatened not only by its neoliberal and autocratic enemies, but by the despair and disorientation of its citizens, Sofia N""asstr""om's new book offers a bracing call for democratic renewal. If we want to save democracy, N""asstr""om argues, we must abandon the 'people trap' of popular sovereignty, and to restore democracy we need a new language for understanding why it is worth defending. N""asstr""om develops that language through her distinctive account of the 'the spirit of emancipation'. A brilliant contribution to contemporary democratic theory. * Jason Frank, John L. Senior Chair of Government, Cornell University * In this path-breaking book, Sofia N""asstr""om maintains that we need to go beyond the idea of the sovereign people as the foundation of modern democracy and focus instead on the spiritof emancipation. By adopting this perspective, the book offers novel and convincing arguments about not only the problems that democracy is facing today, but also how democracy can be renovated. Anyone who cares about the future of democracy will want to engage with this eye-opening book. * Professor Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile *"

As democracy enters another period of crisis, threatened not only by its neoliberal and autocratic enemies, but by the despair and disorientation of its citizens, Sofia Nasstroem's new book offers a bracing call for democratic renewal. If we want to save democracy, Nasstroem argues, we must abandon the 'people trap' of popular sovereignty, and to restore democracy we need a new language for understanding why it is worth defending. Nasstroem develops that language through her distinctive account of the 'the spirit of emancipation'. A brilliant contribution to contemporary democratic theory. * Jason Frank, John L. Senior Chair of Government, Cornell University * In this path-breaking book, Sofia Nasstroem maintains that we need to go beyond the idea of the sovereign people as the foundation of modern democracy and focus instead on the spiritof emancipation. By adopting this perspective, the book offers novel and convincing arguments about not only the problems that democracy is facing today, but also how democracy can be renovated. Anyone who cares about the future of democracy will want to engage with this eye-opening book. * Professor Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile *

Author Information

Sofia Näsström is Professor at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. She specializes in political theory, and has written on topics related to democracy, legitimacy, the people, and representation. She leads the project Democratic Self-Defence: The Social Model at Uppsala University, and has recently published a popular science book on democracy in Swedish.

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