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This chapter assesses the multi-dimensional crisis of democracy in contemporary capitalism. Problematising popular and liberal understandings of the crisis, it discusses the roots of the current crisis in the foundations of representative democracy under capitalism. Understanding right-wing populism as a symptom of this crisis rather than its cause, it discusses the erosion of popular political sovereignty in capitalist democracy. Contesting interpretations of populism as a rhetorical style or organisational approach to politics, the chapter instead discusses populism as a form of ‘common sense’ emerging from the uneven development of capitalist class relations rooted in precarity, debt, and exclusion. It concludes by reflecting on the limits of left-populist formations throughout the 2010s and the systemic advantages of the far-right in the current political landscape.

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Crisis of Democracy: Discontent and the Rise of Populism

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Michael Bray,
  • Dillon Wamsley,
  • Chris Saltmarsh

摘要

This chapter assesses the multi-dimensional crisis of democracy in contemporary capitalism. Problematising popular and liberal understandings of the crisis, it discusses the roots of the current crisis in the foundations of representative democracy under capitalism. Understanding right-wing populism as a symptom of this crisis rather than its cause, it discusses the erosion of popular political sovereignty in capitalist democracy. Contesting interpretations of populism as a rhetorical style or organisational approach to politics, the chapter instead discusses populism as a form of ‘common sense’ emerging from the uneven development of capitalist class relations rooted in precarity, debt, and exclusion. It concludes by reflecting on the limits of left-populist formations throughout the 2010s and the systemic advantages of the far-right in the current political landscape.