Rethinking Democratic Theory in the Face of Contemporary Politics

Shapiro Ien,

Professor, Department of Political Science, Yale University, USA, ian.shapiro@yale.edu

For citation:

Shapiro Ien Rethinking Democratic Theory in the Face of Contemporary Politics . – Polis. Political Studies. 2001. No. 4

Abstract

Having dwelled in the first part of his article (see Polis 2001, No.3) on the bulk of conflicting accounts of democracy’s aim, including those attending to the legitimate management of power relations on the basis of electoral competition (Schumpeterian concept of competitive democracy), the author now shifts his attention to mechanisms for advancing democracy. In this second part of the article, within a general task of exploring ways to make competitive democracy work better, he analyzes comparative merits of different electoral systems as engineering devices to promote democracy under different socio-historical conditions and, in particular, in societies usually thought antithetical to it. The author comes to a general conclusion that democracy might in principle operate everywhere, arguing at the same time for an incremental approach, given the dearth of reliable knowledge about the adaptability of politicized identities to the requirements of competitive democracy.

Content No. 4, 2001

Barsukova S.Yu.,
Problems of Refugees and Emergency Migrants in the Mirror of Ideologies. – Polis. Political Studies. 1999. No5

Sorokin K.E.,
Russia and the Play of Geopolitical Interests in the Great Ocean Area. – Polis. Political Studies. 1994. No4

Kapustin B.G.,
Postcommunism as Postmodernity (Russian Variant). – Polis. Political Studies. 2001. No5

Round Table of the «Polis» Journal, Schmitter Ph., Melville A.Yu., Pantin V.I., Lebedeva M.M., Lapkin V.V., Solovyov A.I., Pronin S.V., Yakhimovich Z.P., Yazhborovskaya I.S., Davydov A.P., Miteyeva L.D., Stroganova E.D.,
Democratic Transits: Variants of the Ways and Uncertainty of the Results. – Polis. Political Studies. 1999. No3

Kaspe S.I.,
Apologia of the Center: On a Forgotten Methodological Resource of Political Science. – Polis. Political Studies. 2005. No1