The ‘Problem’ of the People

Abstract

At the core of any definition of democracy (demokratia) is the demos: ‘the people’. Yet the difficulty in defining democracy adequately is in specifying the linkage between the demos and kratos: ‘rule’. Nonetheless, however this linkage is conceived, a common precept of democracy is the participation of ‘the people’ in the making of decisions that affect them. Exactly how the people participate, and the conditions under which they participate, has provided a fundamental conceptual distinction between unmediated/direct forms of participation and mediated/indirect forms. In turn, these forms have tended to be subsumed within broader, contrasting conceptions of direct democracy and representative democracy. In the former, ‘democracy mean[s] that each and every citizen ha[s] an equal and meaningful chance to take part in lawmaking’ (Urbinati 2006: 2), with political legitimacy stemming directly from the people’s direct engagement in public policy-making. Indeed, from this perspective, ‘participation is thought of as democracy’ (Weale 2007: 101), in which case ‘the people’ do not constitute a conceptual ‘problem’ in their relation to decision-making as there is an unmediated link: they are the decision makers.