TY - JOUR
T1 - When Democracy Is on the Ballot
AU - Ignatieff, Michael
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024, Johns Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/7/1
Y1 - 2024/7/1
N2 - Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy reproduces its legitimacy by its routine operation. In times of political crisis, however, the defining issue of an election can become the commitment of adversaries to the rules of the democratic game. At such times, polarization can become lethal to the very system that both sides say they are committed to maintaining. All democracies could use serious institutional reform, but we will not begin unless we abandon the illusion that democracy's problems would be solved if we could just defeat authoritarian populists at the ballot box. It is our institutions, not just the players, that need changing.
AB - Democratic self-rule is an unending argument about what democracy is. In normal times, democracy reproduces its legitimacy by its routine operation. In times of political crisis, however, the defining issue of an election can become the commitment of adversaries to the rules of the democratic game. At such times, polarization can become lethal to the very system that both sides say they are committed to maintaining. All democracies could use serious institutional reform, but we will not begin unless we abandon the illusion that democracy's problems would be solved if we could just defeat authoritarian populists at the ballot box. It is our institutions, not just the players, that need changing.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85198724394&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1353/jod.2024.a930424
DO - 10.1353/jod.2024.a930424
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85198724394
SN - 1045-5736
VL - 35
SP - 17
EP - 23
JO - Journal of Democracy
JF - Journal of Democracy
IS - 3
ER -