This book enquires into the state of health of contemporary democracies, offering a sociological reading of democracy to identify the causes of the current transformation of democracy from a social and cultural perspective. With attention to the social dynamics present in modern Western societies, it analyses phenomena such as populism, new conspiracy theories and denialism, and processes including de-politicisation and de-democratisation. Identifying the centrality of questions concerning social identity and the political imaginary to our understanding of such phenomena, Democracies on the Move explores the mechanisms that link the transformations of todays societies to the current phase of crisis in Western democracies. It will therefore appeal to scholars of social and political theory and political sociology.
List of Contributors
PRESENTATION
Andrea Millefiorini
PART ONE
Democracy between the paradigm of crisis and paradigm of transformation
Chapter 1
STUDYING DEMOCRACY FROM A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Andrea Millefiorini
Chapter 2
THE DEMOCRATIC FACT: DEMOCRACY, CRISIS, TRANSFORMATION
Gaspare Nevola
Chapter 3
EMERGENCY POLITICS AND DE-DEMOCRATIZATION IN THE AGE OF AUTHORITARIAN
NEOLIBERALISM
Fabio de Nardis
Chapter 4
THE FRAGILITY OF 'FACTUAL TRUTHS' AND THE DENIAL OF EXPERIENCE: ARENDTIAN
OBSERVATIONS AND REMEDIES TO COUNTER THE REDUCTION OF DEMOCRATIC PLURALISM
Erica Antonini
PART TWO
The identity and social foundations of democratic freedom
Chapter 5
IDENTITY AND DEMOCRACY
Andrea Millefiorini
Chapter 6
CLAIMING THE SOCIAL IN FREEDOM
Massimo Pendenza
PART THREE
Imaginaries of democracy in the 21st century
Chapter 7
DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL CULTURE. FROM IDEOLOGIES TO SOCIAL IMAGINARIES
Ambrogio Santambrogio
Chapter 8
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLITICAL OR THE SHIFTING IMAGINARY OF MODERN
DEMOCRACY
Paul Blokker
CONCLUSIONS
Andrea Millefiorini
Andrea Millefiorini is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, where he also teaches general sociology.
