The deepest foundation of our democratic crisis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6297948 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joanna Mansbridge (0000-0002-5454-640X, Harvard University, corresponding author), Jane Mansbridge (Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, USA) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-17 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0192-5121 • E-ISSN: 1460-373X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01925121231203719 |
| OpenAlex | W4390051178 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 32 |
The deepest foundation of our democratic crisis is our increasing human interdependence. That interdependence creates increasing needs for ‘free-use goods’: goods that, once produced, anyone can use without paying (other names: “public goods,” “non-excludable goods”). Such goods produce the classic “free-rider” problems to which the most efficient solution in societies of strangers is usually government provision through taxes or regulation, both of which depend on a combination of voluntarism (based on duty and solidarity) and legitimate coercion. More interdependence creates more free-rider problems, which require more government intervention/coercion. Our eighteenth-century democratic mechanisms were not designed to legitimate the amount of state coercion we now need. To bolster legitimacy, we need to embrace the logic of free-use goods and replace one-way with recursive representation, the principle of distinction with more descriptive representation, corruption with clean institutions, and legislative-centric democracy with a full representative system approach, all drawing on our collective intelligence
Coercion (linguistics · Democracy · Economics · Free rider problem · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Legislature · Legitimacy · Microeconomics · Political science · Politics · Public good · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics
Representation Failure
Schools of Thought
The Principles of Representative Government
Politics with the People
Voice, Trust, and Memory
A Fine is a Price
Recursive Representation
Runaway World
Corruption
The Logic of Collective Action
The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure
Populism and Democratic Theory
The representative system
Anti-corruption
The Place of Self‐Interest and the Role of Power in Deliberative Democracy
Trust games
Welfare Economics and the Theory of the State
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations
What Is Populism
"Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent "Yes
What Satisfaction with Democracy? A Global Analysis of “Satisfaction with Democracy” Measures
What Is Political Science For
Cooperative and competitive behavior in mixed-motive games
Catching the ‘Deliberative Wave’? How (Disaffected) Citizens Assess Deliberative Citizen Forums
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Ending Footbinding and Infibulation
The Irony of Modern Democracy and Efforts to Improve its Practice
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |