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On the Limits of Democracy

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Democracy in Times of Crises

Abstract

This essay discusses the practical limits to democratic participation in decision-making. While defending representative democracy, it looks at some experiments with deliberative, participatory, or direct democracy which reveal a number of problems. Among these are establishment of incentives for voters to become adequately informed on issues, including the many questions that require specialist knowledge and skilled judgement. Contemporary advocates of ‘maximum’ or extensive democracy have overlooked the evidence we have about the difficulties involved. There is danger that reckless extensions of democratic participation will fail and help to undermine democracy itself.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These wider issues are considered in Hodgson (2021, ch. 9), from which some material for this present essay is taken. The author thanks Christopher Achen, Larry Bartels, David Gindis and Gerhard Schnyder for discussions.

  2. 2.

    In his review of Brennan (2017), Mounck (2018) and Runciman (2018), Mor (2019) pointed out that none of these authors paid much attention to processes of representation, including formative engagement by representatives with the legislative system.

  3. 3.

    The reasons given here in favour of representative democracy modify and supplement the arguments of Achen and Bartels (2016, pp. 316–319).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for International Management, Loughborough University London, London, UK

    Geoffrey M. Hodgson

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  1. Geoffrey M. Hodgson
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Correspondence to Geoffrey M. Hodgson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Emmanouil M.L. Economou

  2. Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Nicholas C. Kyriazis

  3. Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Athanasios Platias

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Hodgson, G.M. (2022). On the Limits of Democracy. In: Economou, E.M., Kyriazis, N.C., Platias, A. (eds) Democracy in Times of Crises. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97295-0_4

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