Social Rights

The chapter examines the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy in relation to social rights, with particular attention given to the neoliberal choice revolution in social and public services. It shows that reforms undertaken to empower citizens by making them personally responsible for private and public life pave the way for a corruption of democracy that risks ending in democratic disintegration; in a so called “market for monarchy” where individuals are encouraged to compete for status and titles. In order to turn the corruption of democracy into a call for democratic renewal, it is not more “responsibility talk” that is called for, a common response in liberal and republican thought. On the contrary, the task is to release citizens from the burdens engendered by the choice revolution, and render them free to begin anew.

Rousseau’s People Trap

The chapter critically examines the sovereign people as the foundation of modern democracy. More specifically, it asks what allegiance to the sovereign people entails for how one addresses conflicts on the nature of modern democracy: who should govern. The central argument made in the chapter is that commitment to the sovereign people leads to a trap. It spurs disillusionment with democracy’s capacity to adjudicate conflicting claims on who “we, the people” are under conditions of globalization, migration, and secession. By letting go of Rousseau’s legacy and introducing the work of Montesquieu, this chapter initiates the reorientation of democratic theory from sovereignty to spirit.

Election

The chapter examines the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy in relation to election. Taking issue with two canonized views on election, it shows that neither the liberal nor the republican version captures its emancipatory spirit; how it tames and shapes the essential uncertainties of the future equally. What makes election democratic is that it gives institutional body to the principle of emancipation, and secures our freedom to begin anew. On this basis, the chapter elaborates on the meaning of democratic corruption. It distinguishes between three democratic “tyrannies” in electoral politics based on distinction, virtue, and emancipation respectively: the tyranny of the majority, the tyranny of the minority, and the tyranny of novelty. It ends by discussing the future role of election as path to democratic disintegration, on the one hand, and democratic renewal, on the other.

Conclusion

The final chapter of the book takes stock, and asks what light it can shed on the present crisis of democracy: What can one see or do with this new conceptualization of democracy as spirit that one could not see or do before? Conversely, what issues have been framed out of vision? The chapter goes through the major findings in the shift from sovereignty to spirit, with a specific focus on how it reorients the discussion on populism, elitism, and the resurgence of authoritarianism. It also touches upon three major issues that fall beyond the scope of the book, namely how the spirit of democracy relates to the state, the nation, and the market respectively.

The Principle of Emancipation

The chapter inquires into the spirit of the democratic revolution. Instead of focusing on its nature—the symbolic shift from the sovereign king to the sovereign people—it concentrates on its principle: How could the monarchical principle of honor, and its designation of society into a hierarchy of social classes give way to a revolutionary quest for equality? Assuming that part of the answer lies in the overwhelming experience of uncertainty that accompanies the democratic revolution, the chapter distinguishes between three meanings of uncertainty—cosmic, human, and political—and reconstructs the democratic meaning of emancipation. The aim is to show that a democratic political lifeform tames uncertainty by sharing and dividing it equally. It emancipates us from a state of self-incurred tutelage.

Citizenship Status

The chapter examines the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy in relation to citizenship status. It shows that the prerogative of sovereign peoples to control migration and decide their own membership criteria undermines the commitment needed for democracy to sustain over time. Instead of making citizens sentient to how uncertainty travels across borders—and the need for reaching outside existing class affiliations to tame it—it spurs overconfidence in the ability of particular peoples to cope with migration. By basing membership on distinction (qualifications, skills, and resources) and virtue (loyalty to country and law), one reinforces class status over citizenship status, both at home and abroad. The chapter ends by offering a definition of citizenship status able to avoid this dilemma, and transform present-day uncertainties into a call for democratic renewal.

Democratic Freedom

The chapter explores the meaning of democratic freedom. Building on the work of Hannah Arendt, it demonstrates that the long-standing debate between liberalism and republicanism does not exhaust the meaning of freedom. There is a unique conception of democratic freedom built into the democratic revolution, defined as the capacity to begin anew. The chapter clarifies what is democratic about this conception, and how it differs from positive freedom, conventionally understood. It shows that democratic freedom, defined as the capacity to begin anew offers a much-needed alternative to the many liberal and republican conceptions of freedom that dominate contemporary political theory, including freedom as non-interference, non-domination and self-determination.

Introduction

The Introduction presents the main content of the book, namely how a shift from sovereignty to spirit changes our understanding of what democracy is. Itbegins by clarifying the key concept of the book: “the spirit.” With this basic conceptual vocabulary in place, it describes the overall argument about the spirit of democracy, how it emancipates us from a state of self-incurred tutelage by sharing and dividing uncertainty about the future equally. It spells out the significance of this interpretation for the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy. The Introduction ends with a note on the status of the argument, and a brief description of the chapters that follow.