Open AccessDemocracy in crisis
Author(s) -
Lawrence Hamilton,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acta academica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 2415-0479
pISSN - 0587-2405
DOI - 10.18820/24150479/aa53i2/4
Subject(s) - democracy , politics , covid-19 , political economy , political science , pandemic , liberal democracy , public relations , public administration , sociology , law , medicine , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
In this article I submit that the pandemic politics of the Covid-19 crisis have unmasked the inadequacies of existing representative democracies. Mixing the experiences and responses of various democracies and thinkers to this crisis, particularly from India and South Africa, I argue that a minimally functioning democracy must do two things at least: ensure the health and well-being of citizens and the equal means competitively to select prudent, empathetic and courageous leaders. For this, I suggest, we need a politics that allows us to express and assess our needs, and determine who is best placed to represent us in responding to these needs, all in non-dominating conditions. To this end, the article also proposes and defends four institutional reforms that would enable a dynamic, anti-oligarchic form of democracy to consistently empower the least powerful and keep elites properly in check.