The Spirit of Democracy

Image: View of the Acropolis from the Pnyx, Athens, by Rudolph Müller 1863

This paper proposes a new understanding of the collectively shared, ‘deeper than words’ beliefs that nurture people’s sense of what counts as democracy and why they consider it to be a desirable way of life and legitimate form of government. In our turbulent times, when democracy is pressured and threatened by various forces and trends, the paper proposes that it is especially important to ask: what exactly do we mean by democracy, how can its institutions and practices be made more robust and resilient, and what are the reasons for thinking that democracy is a politically valuable and globally desirable way of handling power and preventing its corruption and abuse?