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<p>In recent years, the issue of possible early warning signs for democratic regression has become increasingly relevant. In this regard, the focus is often on how democracy-threatening actors can be identified as early as possible. Within this debate, one term has recently emerged again, as various contributions suggest that anti-pluralist actors are in the driver’s seat of democratic backsliding. However, anti-pluralism in this literature usually remains completely undefined, or at least undertheorized. This study intends to contribute to clarifying the theoretical dimension of these issues by specifying anti-pluralism as a&#xa0;concept and discussing its relationships to competing concepts for identifying actors threatening democracy. The conceptual analysis shows that anti-pluralism is best understood as the negation of the benefits of societal diversity and thereby also the functional and normative necessity, purpose, and merit of pluralism as a&#xa0;structure principle. Furthermore, it can be shown that anti-pluralism is a&#xa0;feature of various other isms that are commonly used as indicators to identify actors threatening democracy. I&#xa0;conclude that while anti-pluralism is not necessary for actors to threaten democracy, it is sufficient to identify potentially threatening actors and has advantages over competing markers such as populism and extremism.</p>

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What is anti-pluralism?

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年2月4日

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  • Kevin Walz

摘要

In recent years, the issue of possible early warning signs for democratic regression has become increasingly relevant. In this regard, the focus is often on how democracy-threatening actors can be identified as early as possible. Within this debate, one term has recently emerged again, as various contributions suggest that anti-pluralist actors are in the driver’s seat of democratic backsliding. However, anti-pluralism in this literature usually remains completely undefined, or at least undertheorized. This study intends to contribute to clarifying the theoretical dimension of these issues by specifying anti-pluralism as a concept and discussing its relationships to competing concepts for identifying actors threatening democracy. The conceptual analysis shows that anti-pluralism is best understood as the negation of the benefits of societal diversity and thereby also the functional and normative necessity, purpose, and merit of pluralism as a structure principle. Furthermore, it can be shown that anti-pluralism is a feature of various other isms that are commonly used as indicators to identify actors threatening democracy. I conclude that while anti-pluralism is not necessary for actors to threaten democracy, it is sufficient to identify potentially threatening actors and has advantages over competing markers such as populism and extremism.