Good Government: Democracy beyond Elections

by Pierre Rosanvallon, Malcom DeBevoise (Translation)

Few would disagree that Western democracies are experiencing a crisis of representation. In the United States, gerrymandering and concentrated political geographies have placed the Congress and state legislatures in a stranglehold that is often at odds with public opinion. Campaign financing ensures that only the affluent have voice in legislation. Europeans, meanwhile, increasingly see the European Union as an anti-democratic body whose "diktats" have no basis in popular rule. The response, however, has not been an effective pursuit of better representation. In Good Government, Pierre Rosanvallon examines the long history of the alternative to which the public has gravitated: the empowered executive.

Rosanvallon argues that, faced with everyday ineptitude in governance, people become attracted to strong leaders and bold executive action. If these fail, they too often want even stronger personal leadership. Whereas nineteenth-century liberals and reformers longed for parliamentary sovereignty, nowadays few contest the "imperial presidency." Rosanvallon traces this history from the Weimar Republic to Charles De Gaulle's "exceptional" presidency to the Bush-Cheney concentration of executive power.

Europeans rebelling against the technocratic EU and Americans fed up with the "administrative state" have turned to charismatic figures, from Donald Trump to Viktor Orban, who tout personal strength as their greatest asset. This is not just a right-wing phenomenon, though, as liberal contentment with Obama's drone war demonstrates. Rosanvallon makes clear that contemporary "presidentialism" may reflect the particular concerns of the moment, but its many precursors demonstrate that democracy has always struggled with tension between popular government and concentrated authority.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Political Science, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 2015

About the author

Pierre Rosanvallon (b. 1948, Blois) is a French intellectual and historian, named professor at the Collège de France in 2001. He holds there the chair in the modern and contemporary history of the political. His works are dedicated to the history of democracy, French political history, the role of the state and the question of social justice in contemporary societies. He is also director of studies at the EHESS, where he leads the Raymond Aron Centre of Political Researches. Rosanvallon was in the 1970s one of the primary theoreticians of workers' self-management in the CFDT trade union.

He is diplomed from the HEC management school. In 1982, he created the Fondation Saint-Simon think-tank, along with François Furet. The Fondation dissolved in December 1999. Since 2002, Rosanvallon is member of the Scientific Counsel of the French National Library, and has the same functions, since 2004, at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris.

Rosanvallon created in 2002 La République des Idées, an "intellectual workshop" which he presides. The group publishes a review and books.

Reviews

[Czarek Węgliński · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely clever study on the concept of democracy with rich historical and philosophical background. The author reveals how the principle of people's appropriation of power can applicate to the executive. The book helps to understand democracy's contemporary problems. Looking forward to see the author's conclusions and his propositions getting realised.

[Matthieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comment avoir plus de démocratie dans nos (notre) sociétés (initialement parlementaires où l'on se défiait des personnalités marquées) aujourd'hui hyper présidentielles, où l'avis du citoyen ne compte que lors des grands scrutins ? Une question très actuelle et très pertinente à l'heure où les démocraties du monde, et en France en particularité, souffrent de cette confiscation du politique par ses représentants "professionnels" qui engendre le désintérêt toujours croissant des peuples.
Contre-pouvoirs (réels), responsabilité, exemplarité, implication citoyenne : en bref une démocratie de dialogue continu et fluide autant que possible entre représentants et représentés.

[Giorgio · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Pierre Rosanvallon addresses the ongoing crisis in representative democracy by shifting focus from electoral representation to the quality of governance itself. Rosanvallon argues that modern democracies have undergone a fundamental transformation: institutions originally designed for representation have evolved into systems focused on governing, with executive power dominating over legislative assemblies. Rosanvallon calls this process “presidentialization.”

The book’s primary contribution is its call to “decenter” democratic theory away from the myth of a unified “people” whose will is expressed through elections and parliamentary legislation. Instead, Rosanvallon proposes more democratic legitimacy through indirect sources: proximity (governing with empathy and closeness to citizens), impartiality (maintaining equal distance in judgments), and reflexivity (fostering multiple viewpoints for societal self-reflection).

Rosanvallon has written a precious contribution to the debate on the development that our democratic systems have taken over the past few decades.