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Repairing Democracy’s Disconnects

Chapter 1 argues that democracy in many societies is wearing thin due to widespread disconnects being experienced between citizens and their elected representatives, between publics in fractious and polarized public spheres, and between citizens and tangled policy processes. Collectively, these disconnects are problematic for realizing democracy at the large scale not only because they produce subtle forms of exclusion, but also because they restrict the movement of ideas and arguments between affected publics and those authorized to make and implement collective decisions. The chapter invites contemporary advocates of democratic reform to think harder both about the nature of these disconnects and about how to repair them. It begins with an overview of the prevailing ideas about contemporary democratic renewal and reform, and then introduces the concept of democratic mending as a promising pathway for advancing democratic reform especially in societies characterized by systemic disconnects.