''Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age'' by Benjamin R. Barber was published by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

in 1984 and republished in a twentieth anniversary edition in 2004. The book argues that representative or "thin" democracy is rooted in an individualistic "rights" perspective that diminishes the role of citizens in democratic governance. The work offers a theoretical critique of representative or liberal democracy and a foundation for

participatory politics Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather ...

. The final chapter elucidates practical ways to apply the theory of strong democracy in large industrial societies. Strong democracy is also discussed in ''The Local Politics of Global Sustainability'' by Herman Daly, Thomas Prugh and Robert Costanza (2000), and is defined as "Politics understood as the creation of a vision that can respond to and change with the changing world." The authors go on to describe strong democracy thus:

In a strong democracy, people – citizens – govern themselves to the greatest extent possible rather than delegate their power and responsibility to representatives acting in their names. Strong democracy does not mean politics as a way of life, as an all-consuming job, game, and
avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...
, as it is for so many professional politicians. But it does mean politics (citizenship) as a way of living: an expected element of one's life. It is a prominent and natural role, such as that of "parent" or "neighbor".

Background

Advocates for strengthening democratic institutions and practices in the United States were convened beginning in 2008 under the title of Strengthening Our Nation's Democracy (SOND). The convenings brought together advocates of

electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems that alters how public desires, usually expressed by cast votes, produce election results. Description Reforms can include changes to: * Voting systems, such as adoption of proportional represen ...

, campaign finance reform,

civic engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...

deliberative democracy Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. Deliberative democracy seeks quality over quantity by limiting decision-makers to a smaller but more representative sample ...

open government Open government is the governing doctrine which maintains that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state a ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

collaborative governance Governance is a broader concept than government and also includes the roles played by the community sector and the private sector in managing and planning countries, regions and cities. Collaborative governance involves the government, community an ...

, media reform, service and immigrant civic inclusion to identify how they could better collaborate with one another.Stuart Comstock-Gay and Joe Goldman. "Civic Engagement and the New Agenda for Democratic Reform" in the National Civic Review, Volume 98, Issue 2, Summer 2009. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ncr.254/abstract Among the convening organizations of Strengthening Our Nation's Democracy were AmericaSpeaks,

Demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...

, Everyday Democracy, and faculty from Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Innovation and Governance. As a result of the convenings, the groups formed a coalition called the Campaign for Stronger Democracy.

Critique of liberal "thin" democracy

"Liberal," "thin," or "representative" democracy was criticized throughout the 19th century by leading anarchists, such as

Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, ; ; 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to ca ...

Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, so ...

, and

Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later ...

. In fact, Kropotkin's essay "Representative Government" in ''Words of a Rebel'', 1885, can be regarded as a locus classicus of such criticism. Instead of a bottom-up democracy, with a direct democracy or local elections for only local offices, liberal democracy consists of huge masses of people voting for political offices. Winning a mass election is normally a function of how much money is used for advertisement, and, thus, results in a rule by oligarchs, or plutocracy. Barber posits that the radical individualism that underpins liberal theory and practice actually fundamentally undermines democracy. This weak democracy produces less legitimate outcomes than under a stronger democratic structure. Barber also criticizes the liberal construction of the

social contract In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Conceptualized in the Age of Enlightenment, it ...

, claiming that traditionalists influenced primarily by

Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered to be one of the founders ...

view man and law as mere abstractions, which contributes to isolationism within society and a series of emergent pathologies.

Dispositions of liberal democracy

Barber dissects liberalism into three main dispositions, each representing a certain posture towards conflict and the relationship between the individual and the state.

Anarchist

* Idealist democracy is a strong citizenship * Radical individualist * Conflict-denying

Realist

* Strong statist protection of individual rights * Conflict-suppressing

Minimalist

* Pluralist * Conflict-tolerating

References

{{Reflist 1984 non-fiction books Political science books University of California Press books Democracy promotion