Assessing liberal and radical democracy and its political support : A comparative analysis at the subnational level of the swiss cantons

Abstract

Whereas established democracies have been responding to public pressures for broader inclusion, grassroots participation as well as public accountability, existing measures of democracy rely almost exclusively on a liberal conceptualization of representative democracy. Most notably, they ignore another fundamental tradition of democratic thought: that of radical democracy, which strives for direct participation of all citizens in the public debate and in political decision-making. Drawing from classical liberal and radical views on what democratic institutions can or should accomplish, we construct a multidimensional measurement instrument which we devise specifically for the subnational level of the Swiss cantons. The resulting measures point to a dilemma of radical democracy, since participatory cantons are markedly less inclusive. Liberal democracies in turn are faced with a different dilemma: Citizens in liberal democracies are significantly less supportive of both their political institutions and their political community.