| Title |
Politinės reprezentacijos problema modernioje demokratijoje / |
| Translation of Title |
Does modern democracy represent the people? |
| Authors |
Karalius, Gintas |
| DOI |
10.15388/Polit.2018.91.11967 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
Politologija.. Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla. 2018, t. 91, nr. 3, p. 139-165.. ISSN 1392-1681. eISSN 2424-6034 |
| Keywords [eng] |
modern democracy ; political representation ; Montesquieu’s theory |
| Abstract [eng] |
The purpose of this article is to suggest an innovative theoretical approach to modern democracy and its implicit contradiction between the idea of public sovereignty and the model of political representation. The apparent practical problem arising from this contradiction is the lack of legitimacy in democratically elected officials and parliament in general. The article argues that the issue with democratic representation cannot be explained sociologically, but must include a theoretical analysis of the normative contradiction between the egalitarian principle of sovereignty of the people and the hierarchical model of political representation. The article develops its argument from the conceptual framework laid down in the political theory of Montesquieu. Montesquieu’s thoughts on political regimes offer important insights about modern representative democracy, highlighting the structural relationship between what he called the “nature of democracy” (the rule of the people) and the “generating principle of democracy” (love for equality). Three contemporary interpretations of Montesquieu’s theory (by Fred Dallmayr, Michael Mosher and Sharon Krause) are introduced and critically evaluated. The article concludes that: Representative democracy suffers from a structural tension between the democratic idea of the rule of the people and its practical implementation through the model of representation, which was inherited from predemocratic monarchic regimes. The problem is not sociological but structural.... |
| Published |
Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
Lithuanian |
| Publication date |
2018 |
