Democratic gaps, traps and tricks - comment on: Flinders, M. (2015) The Problem with Democracy
Democratic gaps, traps and tricks - comment on: Flinders, M. (2015) The Problem with Democracy
Few scholars have done more over recent years to engage with and raise public awareness about the issue of ‘anti-politics’ or ‘democratic disaffection’ than Matthew Flinders. In the spirit of this ongoing conversation, it is a pleasure to respond to this latest iteration of his thinking that both deepens and extends his previous work, and Defending Politics (2012) in particular. His latest article advances the debate in a number of ways not the least of which is the use of the concepts ‘noise’, ‘listening’ and ‘silence’ to describe the way publics engage with modern democracy; the noise is deafening but nobody is listening and even when they do there is silence about the negative impact wrought by certain changes, especially technological, to the way we do democracy. It is a provocative assertion that that bears many of the hallmarks of his earlier work (for my take on where his work fits in this literature see Corbett, 2014, 2015). Flinders is interested in the growing ‘gap’ between citizen expectations and practical realities, and the ways it is being driven from the ‘demand’ side; that is by citizens. He does not employ his phrase ‘democratic decadence’ here but it reverberates throughout the piece nonetheless.
204-206
Corbett, Jack
ad651655-ac70-4072-a36f-92165e296ce2
January 2016
Corbett, Jack
ad651655-ac70-4072-a36f-92165e296ce2
Corbett, Jack
(2016)
Democratic gaps, traps and tricks - comment on: Flinders, M. (2015) The Problem with Democracy.
Parliamentary Affairs, 69 (1), .
(doi:10.1093/pa/gsv006).
Abstract
Few scholars have done more over recent years to engage with and raise public awareness about the issue of ‘anti-politics’ or ‘democratic disaffection’ than Matthew Flinders. In the spirit of this ongoing conversation, it is a pleasure to respond to this latest iteration of his thinking that both deepens and extends his previous work, and Defending Politics (2012) in particular. His latest article advances the debate in a number of ways not the least of which is the use of the concepts ‘noise’, ‘listening’ and ‘silence’ to describe the way publics engage with modern democracy; the noise is deafening but nobody is listening and even when they do there is silence about the negative impact wrought by certain changes, especially technological, to the way we do democracy. It is a provocative assertion that that bears many of the hallmarks of his earlier work (for my take on where his work fits in this literature see Corbett, 2014, 2015). Flinders is interested in the growing ‘gap’ between citizen expectations and practical realities, and the ways it is being driven from the ‘demand’ side; that is by citizens. He does not employ his phrase ‘democratic decadence’ here but it reverberates throughout the piece nonetheless.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 21 April 2015
Published date: January 2016
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations
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Local EPrints ID: 389418
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/389418
ISSN: 0031-2290
PURE UUID: fe114363-5a04-4e7c-97a8-82b9e212b63f
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Date deposited: 07 Mar 2016 12:28
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 23:03
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