The crisis of democracy and the “look downwards”

Oliver Eberl; Dirk Jörke; David Salomon

doi:10.5020/2317-2150.2023.14146

Authors

Oliver Eberl University Hanover, Hanover, Alemanha https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8254-0825
Dirk Jörke Universidade Técnica de Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Alemanha https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7927-3727
David Salomon Universidade Técnica de Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Alemanha https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8948-6769

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5020/2317-2150.2023.14146

Keywords:

“look down”, rabble, democracy, liberalism, social democracy, history of ideas

Abstract

Current diagnoses of a crisis of democracy in the Global North go hand in hand with a disparaging “look downwards.” Already in the nineteenth century, liberal thinkers formulated institutional precautions against the “rabble.” What is striking about the current devaluation discourse is that the return of this “look downwards” is not limited to libertarian or liberal-conservative concepts but is also present in progressive approaches. We demonstrate this for the German and Anglo-American discussion.

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Author Biographies

Oliver Eberl, University Hanover, Hanover, Alemanha

PD Dr. Oliver Eberl is a postdoctoral fellow at Leibniz University Hanover and project manager of the Project “The Look Downwards. Social Conflicts in the History of Democracy” funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung at Technical University Darmstadt. He received his Ph.D. (Dr. phil.) from University of Bremen in 2007 and habilitated at Technical University Darmstadt in 2017. For four semesters he was a substitute professor of Political Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt. He works on democratic theory, the history of ideas and international political theory with a focus on Kant and the history of colonialism. His latest book is “Naturzustand und Barbarei. Begründung und Kritik des Staates im Zeichen des Kolonialismus“, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2021.

Dirk Jörke, Universidade Técnica de Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Alemanha

Dirk Jörke is a Professor for Political Theory and the History of Political Ideas at the Technical University Darmstadt. He obtained his promotion and his habilitation from the University of Greifswald (Germany) and was Heisenberg fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG). His main research areas are democratic theory and the history of the concept of “democracy”. In the last decade he has published several articles about post-democracy and the populist challenge for western democracies. His latest book is “Die Größe der Demokratie. Über die räumliche Dimension von Herrschaft und Partizipation”, Berlin: Suhrkamp.

David Salomon, Universidade Técnica de Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Alemanha

Dr. David Salomon is project manager of the Project “The Look Downwards. Social Conflicts in the History of Democracy” funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung at Technical University Darmstadt. His Dr. phil he reseived from the Philips University Marburg in 2010. He was substitute professor of political education at the universities of Frankfurt and Siegen and guest professor for political education at the University of Hildesheim. His latest book is: Anke Wischmann, Susanne Spieker, David Salomon and Jürgen-Matthias Springer (Eds.): Neue Arbeitsverhältnisse – Neue Bildung, Jahrbuch für Pädagogik 2020, Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa.