Democracias no século XXI: causas, sintomas e estratégias para superar sua crise

Abstract

This article analyzes papers that have been published in recent years that identify a serious crisis of contemporary democracies. They address the causes and symptoms of this “democratic deconsolidation” process and propose some solutions for overcoming it. The clamor for the restoration of liberal democracy stands out as a common normative element in most texts. Opposed to these institutionalist conceptions that result in two strategies for the reconstruction of liberal democracy (“elitist salvationism” and “civic catechism”), this article assumes that we are experiencing a structural crisis of the so-called “democratic capitalism” produced by the “neoliberal revolution”. Following this last perspective, however, no immediate “exit” can be deduced for this current dramatic historical moment.