Kant on the future of representative democracy

Abstract

Kant’s Staatsrecht in his “Metaphysics of Morals” likely represents the sharpest analysis and critique of democratic modernity after 1789. At the same time, it provides a unique outlook on the future of modern representative democracy. This has gone largely unnoticed, with scholars often lamenting the problematic nature of the late text, blamed either on the author’s supposed senility or on the inscrutable composition resulting from confusion during the printing process. Rather than affirming these readings, I will argue that they are merely attempts to wrestle with the brilliance of Kant’s philosophical rhetoric. Through a new reading of a key passage in the Staatsrecht, I substantiate this claim by reconstructing Kant’s late account of repres- entative democracy and its future.