Democratic deficit
► There are rules to be obeyed and procedures to be followed that make a regime democratic. When those are violated there is a democratic deficit. Democracy may still exist but it is deficient.
► The post-foundational view conjectures that even a previously exemplary democracy can be internally or inherently disturbed and pushed towards a deficit. Ordinarily, people tend to think there are external factors that render a democracy flawed.
► Both views can be correct depending on time and conditions. Nevertheless, if in the neo-liberal era democracies are fragile and if there are underlying built-in tendencies that corrupt them so they become non-democracies, then the problem is much more serious.
► Yet there are also theses –at least three conjectures- that purport to explain the emergence of modern democracies.
Which view one espouses is important and could change the way we analyse the causes of the current global democratic deficit.
► The first two standpoints posit structural breaks. Democracy could be seen as the outcome of the advent of unfettered markets. This kind of possessive individualism equates market economies and democracies. The breakpoint would be found somewhere in the 17th Century.
► The second structural break thesis claims that it isn’t the markets or the bourgeoisie that caused and shored up Western democracies. It is the working class movements and popular social demands –such as universal suffragethat either caused or enhanced them.
► If this view is correct we ought to see late 19th Century Europe –Germany, France, and Scandinavia- as the cradle of modern democracy. Actually the bourgeoisie didn’t like the idea of the extension of democratic franchise, but workers, revolutionaries and women forced it to accept the new boundaries.
► There is a third position though. Accordingly, the history of democracy would admit some turning points but there would also be a long-term continuity. Legal tradition, especially Common Law, would be the standard bearer of democracy. If this is so, non-Western regions can (almost) never establish genuine democracies.
► The New European-Is there a democratic deficit in the EU?