Collective Self-Rule and Comprehensive Participation

A Critique of Council Democracy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID24141925
AutoresErik Van Ree (0000-0002-9419-1594, University of Amsterdam, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Data de publicação2026-09-06
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPhilosophy & Social Criticism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0191-4537 • E-ISSN: 1461-734X
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01914537261481246
OpenAlexW7211877352
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas36

This article critically explores council democracy as a utopian state order, on the basis of anarchist and Marxist works from western Europe and the United States, post-World War 2. As a system of national government, council democracy cannot possibly deliver on its utopian promises. Collective self-rule cannot put an end to domination/hierarchy/rule but will engender another variety of ‘democratic hierarchy’. Comprehensive citizen participation locks citizens in an overregulated ‘democratic bureaucracy’, and delivers no feasible, working formula of government. In a paradox, council democracy is likely greatly to reduce the share of the population participating in the country’s political process, thus carrying less rather than more democratic legitimacy than representative democracy.

Democracy · Legitimacy · Marxist philosophy · Politics · Representative democracy · State (computer science) · Variety (cybernetics) · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism