Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side

179 Pages·2021·1.79 MB·English

by  Robert B. Talisse

Sustaining Democracy

Sustaining
Democracy
What We Owe to the Other Side
ROBERT B. TALISSE
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Talisse, Robert B., author.
Title: Sustaining democracy : what we owe to the other side / Robert B. Talisse.
Description: New York, NY, United States of America :
Oxford University Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021015057 | ISBN 9780197556450 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780197556474 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Democracy. | Citizenship. | Political participation. |
Opposition (Political science) | Equality. | Polarization (Social sciences)—
Political aspects.
Classification: LCC JC423 .T2753 2021 |
DDC 323.6/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015057
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780197556450.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Big Picture 1
1. Common Ground and Its Erosion 6
2. Is Democracy Self-D efeating? 8
3. Sustaining Democracy and Overdoing Democracy 17
4. Final Preliminaries 19
1. Democracy as a Society of Equals 20
1. Democracy as a Moral Idea 22
2. Democracy as an Ethos 25
2.1. Duties of Citizenship 27
2.2. Virtues of Citizenship 29
2.3. Fitting the Pieces Together 34
3. Democracy as a Practical Ideal 37
4. The Generality of the Account 41
2. Why Sustain Democracy? 42
1. Seeing the Dilemma from the Inside 46
2. Persistent Political Disagreement 51
2.1. Good- Faith Political Disagreement 53
2.2. Limits to Good-F aith Political Disagreement 57
2.3. The Dilemma Restated 61
3. The Burden of Citizenship 63
4. Addressing the Citizen 66
3. The Polarization Dynamic 68
1. Political Polarization 73
1.1. Three Sites of Political Polarization 74
1.2. The Three Sites as Mutually Reinforcing 77
2. Belief Polarization 79
vi Contents
2.1. Examples of Belief Polarization 80
2.2. Thinking in Groups 84
2.3. How Belief Polarization Works 86
2.4. Belief Polarization and the Stadium 88
2.5. Polarization as a Dynamic 91
3. Polarization Among Allies 94
3.1. Love Your Political Enemies? 95
3.2. Fractured Allegiances 97
4. The Dilemma Resolved: Why Sustain Democracy 101
4. How Can We Sustain Democracy? 105
1. The Depth of Political Identity 109
1.1. Some Experimental Findings 112
1.2. Political Identity as a Way of Seeing the World 114
2. The Facilitated Democracy Approach 117
3. How to Sustain Democracy 121
3.1. What Sustaining Democracy Does Not Require 123
3.2. Sustaining Democracy Within 125
3.3. The Importance of Political Distance 130
4. Conclusion 137
Epilogue: Living Together as Equals 142
Notes 153
Works Cited 159
Index 165
Preface
Writing a book is never easy. In the case of this particular book, the
usual challenges were magnified by two special circumstances: the
2020 US presidential election and the COVID-1 9 pandemic. As for
the latter, this book was written under lockdown from a small desk
in a corner of my home between April and November 2020. Hence
the process was stranger than usual. I typically work in my campus
office, where I can count on there being long stretches of solitude
that every so often are broken by colleagues who see fit to check in
on me. A lot of good can result from unexpected chitchat with a phi-
losopher. Even small talk can refresh one’s philosophical perspec-
tive. Anyway, this book was written outside of the normal course
of such exchanges with my regular cast of academic interlocutors.
I don’t believe the book is worse for that, but it was harder to write.
That my final chapter makes the argument that democratic citizens
need to establish a kind of political distance that can occasionally
disconnect them from the din of partisanship is an irony that’s not
lost on me.
When I began the project, I realized that I would be writing
during the ramp-u p to the 2020 presidential election. I expected
that the period leading up to Election Day would be taxing. My
central concern was to insulate the book from anything that would
render it too topical, too connected to the travails of 2020. However,
that the pandemic itself became a campaign issue added to the toll
of the election season. The resulting circumstances were not ideal
for writing a book about the possibility that democracy could be
self- defeating— that, even at its best, democracy is exposed to
viii Preface
internal dysfunctions that can undermine it. After all, the combina-
tion of the election and the pandemic made manifest many of these
dysfunctions. At several points along the way, the idea of writing
a philosophy book about democracy seemed slightly perverse—
a kind of fiddling amid the torching of Rome. Life’s too short to
bother with anything that makes it feel longer. And yet here we are.
I would not call this an optimistic book. But it is a hopeful one.
It confronts a serious problem for democracy and then discerns a
way in which that problem could be mitigated. This book derives
hope from the possibility of citizens reorienting their relationships
with their own political commitments—n ot by withdrawing from
them, but instead by understanding them in light of the realization
of our vulnerability to certain social and cognitive forces. To me,
the cover image conveys this message perfectly. It is a painting by
Ian Thuillier titled “Democracy Is DEAD.” As I see it, the painting
depicts a kind of psychological hazard that is part of the profile of
democratic citizenship, a dynamic that gets inside our heads and
draws us to the thought that democracy is dying, if not already
dead. In this sense, the image is a kind of self- portrait of the demo-
cratic citizen, a depiction of our partisan selves. It may sound para-
doxical, but the message of this book is that political hope depends
on our ability to recognize democracy’s vulnerabilities in a way that
does not fix on our opposition’s flaws, but instead turns inward and
recognizes our own political weaknesses.
Acknowledgments
Although this book was written under conditions of social
distancing, I incurred many debts in writing it. I thank the fol-
lowing friends and colleagues for reading chapters, offering ad-
vice, and providing encouragement: Kristoffer Ahlstrom-V ij, Scott
Aikin, Theano Apostolou, Donna Baker, Elizabeth Barnes, Joe
Biehl, William J. Booth, Oliver Burkeman, Ann Cacoullos, Steven
Cahn, Michael Calamari, Gregg Caruso, Myisha Cherry, Martin
Cohen, Matthew Cotter, John Danaher, Boudewijn de Bruin,
Jeroen de Ridder, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Elizabeth Edenberg,
Carrie Figdor, Elizabeth Fiss, Georgi Gardiner, Sandy Goldberg,
Dwight Goodyear, Michael Hannon, Nicole Hassoun, Nicole
Heller, Diana Heney, D. Micah Hester, David Hildebrand, Julie
Hwang, Tziporah Kasachkoff, David Kaspar, Dan Kaufman, John
Lachs, Lauren Leydon-H ardy, Katherine Loevy, Michael Lynch,
Lisa Madura, Mason Marshall, Chris C. Martin, Takunda Matose,
Dave McCullough, Amy McKiernan, Josh Miller, Cheryl Misak,
Jonathan Neufeld, Jon Olafsson, Phil Oliver, Jeanne Palomino,
John Peterman, David Reidy, Peter Reiner, Peter Simpson, Walter
Sinnott- Armstrong, Justin Snedegar, Matthew Stanley, Patricia
Talisse, Paul Taylor, Rob Tempio, Miram Thalos, Jeffrey Tlumak,
Larry Torcello, Rebecca Tuvel, Sarah Tyson, Kevin Vallier, Brendan
Warmke, Leif Wenar, and Julian Wuerth.
I also thank those who attended presentations of this mate-
rial at Dickinson College, University of Binghamton, University
of Canberra, University of Colorado Denver, University of
Connecticut Law School, George Mason University, Georgetown