Issue 4, 2006   

Postdemocracy - A new discourse?

Roland Roth: Citizen Networks against the Extreme Right. Measures against Right-Wing Extremism and Xenophobia, FJ NSB 4/2006, pp.6-15.

The problem of right-wing extremism has grown more urgent in the last six years, finds Roland Roth in his article on the federal programs against the extreme right. He criticizes that the new programs do not take priority measures in the east of Germany - although that would still be necessary - and that the new programs do not show any perspective for lasting structures such as mobile help units, victim help units and network-centers. The author pleads for a more systematic and lasting policy in the struggle against the extreme right.

Hubertus Buchstein/Frank Nullmeier: Introduction: The Debate on 'Post-Democracy'. FJ NSB 4/2006, pp.16-22.

In their article Hubertus Buchstein and Frank Nullmeier trace the origins of the term 'post-democracy'. Interestingly enough, the term appears almost simultaneously in five different languages and in as many different contexts. In all these contexts, the term has different evaluative and descriptive dimensions. According to the authors, it is questionable whether 'post-democracy' will be included into the regular vocabulary of political science in the future. Buchstein and Nullmeier concede the similarities in the analyses of modern democracy by the authors of this volume; however, they follow the critique which puts the accuracy of the term 'post-democracy' into question.

Emanuel Richter: The Analytical Pattern of ‚Post-Democracy'. Conceptual Problems and Strategic Functions, FJ NSB 4/2006, pp.23-37.

The concept of 'post-democracy' represents a provocative, epochal classification of contemporary political systems in the Western world. The paper examines the analytical and normative plausibility of this concept. It concludes that the concept remains useless as an analytical model for the description of an erosion of contemporary democracy. It too eagerly renounces the model of democracy which can never be completed as a certain political practise. As a normative concept, 'post-democracy' serves a dubious ideological intention, namely the compensation of democracy through archaic social norms or through political authoritarianism.

Dirk Jörke: Why 'Post-Democracy'? FJ NSB 04/2006, pp.38-46.

The articles argues that there are two main reasons for using 'post-democracy' as the adequate term for describing contemporary western societies. On the one hand we observe a weakening of the democratic state due to the globalization of politics. On the other hand there is a class biased decline in political participation which hurts the democratic promise of equality. However, the term 'post-democracy' is ambivalent. Therefore the author argues for a warning use of 'post-democracy'.

Karsten Fischer: The Latest Temptation of Democracy. 'Post-Democracy' and Policy Networks, FJ NSB 04/2006, pp.47-57

The article analyses the origins of the notion of 'post-democracy' as a neo-authoritarian ideology on the one hand and as a democratic self-criticism on the other hand. In the course of that argument democratic theory expresses its reservations against the development of policy networks, which weaken the state, for democracy as a temporary legitimation of hierarchical rule is incompatible with intransparent influence on political processes by protagonists of civil society. Finally, the rise of these protagonists is interpreted as an indication of social evolution towards network differentiation.

Ingrid Wehr: The Recapitulation of the Third Wave Blues in Latin America: ‚Bringing the citizen back in', FJ NSB 04/2006, pp.58-71.

Despite of the obvious disappointment with the meager results of the third wave of democratization, the theoretical debate on democracy in Latin America lacks the apocalyptical semantics currently fashionable among European postdemocracy thinkers. In contrast to the Western European debate dominated by a post-war generation which no longer focuses its theoretical considerations predominantly on the Holocaust and authoritarian or totalitarian experiences, democratic theory within Latin America is still influenced by the traumatic experience of the military regimes. In spite of the rather negative context for democratic development, Latin American social scientists today almost stubbornly emphasize the democratic potential of social participation and self-determination. 'Bringing the citizen back in' has developed into both a political slogan and a theoretical leitmotif for the current Latin American debate on democracy.

Ingolfur Blühdorn: I Want It Cheap! The Postdemocratic Turn and Simulative Democracy, FJ NSB 4/2006, pp.72-83.

The term postdemocracy is useful only if it is stripped of the lamento about the unfulfilled promises of democracy. The concept of a postdemocratic turn is suggested to describe a process of transformation in which democratic needs and expectations in late-modern societies evolve beyond the understanding of democracy that had been popularised by the emancipatory and participatory new social movements. Specifically late-modern strategies of identity formation and dilemmas are interpreted as triggers for the development of a new variety of democracy, simulative democracy. The article analyses the conditions for the emergence of this late-modern variety and explores what exactly simulative democracy delivers in contrast to the models of direct-participatory and parliamentary-representative democracy.

Claudia Landwehr: Are Democratic Decisions on the Allocation of Health Care Possible? FJ NSB 4/2006, pp.84-97.

The article addresses the question of whether the existing institutions of representative parliamentary democracy are capable of taking both highly political and highly complex decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Drawing on the example of rationing and allocation of health care, I argue that conflicting interests are veiled behind seemingly expertocratic questions. An objectively 'correct' or just rationing principle from which decisions can be deduced does not exist. Accordingly, I define types of procedures for the distribution of health care. Making use of four case studies (Great Britain, Oregon, Germany and Sweden), these are assessed with regard to their potentials and likely consequences. I come to the conclusion that only a combination of different procedures, including expertocratic and participatory as much as bargaining and parliamentary types, can produce allocation decisions which are both legitimate and well justified.