Democratic Regressions and Possibilities for Progress

This paper explores the possibilities for democratic progress in an age that seems to be marked by democratic regressions, understood as the deliberate undoing of hard-fought political achievements that enable citizens to meaningfully exercise their public autonomy. The paper begins by observing that even the most dramatic cases of democratic regressions are ambivalent occurrences, inasmuch as they demonstrate that quite radical systemic changes are in principle feasible so long as the requisite political will exists. The paper argues that recognising this fact can both motivate and strategically instruct citizens who seek to oppose and reverse regressive trends on the ground. It can motivate them in the sense of generating hope that, just as particular democratic achievements have been deliberately undone through concerted political action, also the restoration of democratic standards – and possibly an even more thoroughgoing democratisation of society – can be achieved if democratically-minded citizens join forces. It can strategically instruct citizens because treating democratic regressions as the product of particular political actors’ intentional actions re-orients our focus to the crucially important question of which democratic norms those actors have transgressed when they launched their attack on democracy, and which of these norms democratically-minded citizens might rightfully transgress in their struggle for the re-democratisation of society as a matter of ‘democratic reciprocity’. The paper extensively discusses these issues, illustrating the argument with empirical examples.