post-democracy

English

Alternative forms

• postdemocracy

Etymology

post- +‎ democracy

Pronunciation

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Noun

post-democracy (plural post-democracies)

1. A society where democratic procedure is only superficially relevant.
   • 2017, Seyla Benhabib, “Democratic Sovereignty and Transnational Law”, in Penelope Deutscher, Cristina Lafont, editors, Critical Theory in Critical Times. Transforming the Global Political and Economic Order (New Directions in Critical Theory; 7), New York City: Columbia University Press, →DOI:

     It may be that we need to conceptualize democratic authorship in less unitary and more heterarchical terms and instead approach it through a diff erent model of sover-eignty and the public sphere. Maybe we should all embrace “postdemocracy”? Or should one insist that these normative criteria of legitimacy remain necessary even in view of new global arrangements, and that, in fact, they may be in a healthy tension with these arrangements?

   • 2019, Anne Fuchs, “Epilogue: Presentist Dystopias or the Case for Environmental Humanities”, in Precarious Times (Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought), Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, →DOI, page 283:

     Britta is an entrepreneur with a cool and calculating head who skillfully exploits the business opportunities of postdemocracy—her heart only beats for her most private affairs.