Contemporary democracy. Myths, veils and (presumed) realities

Abstract

The crisis of representative democracy has become an important topic in recent years. Most debates and critics have been concentrated on the Parliament and political parties. Deficits in the functioning of these institutions have been named as the origin of the discontent of citizens. In order to overcome the crisis of the representative democracy, most academics propose more democracy and more participation. However these solutions are rooted in a deep distrust in the self-healing capacity of representative institutions. In this text we will argue that the crisis of representative democracy has —along with «ordinary» causes linked to deficits of political institutions— very specific reasons which are related to the inadequacy between the existing institutional model and the social transformation of our societies during recent years. A cleavage that may extend the crisis of the representative democracy to a crisis of the democratic convictions of citizens.