Building a realist theory of democracy

(NKFI grant: K-142410)

Short description of the project:

We have witnessed an increasing gap between empirical reality and the picture presented by mainstream theories of democracy. The common image of democratic politics offered by normative theories, including rationality and equality of citizens and bottom-up power relations, has not been supported by empirical political science and behavioural science. People are emotional, conformist and largely non-rational beings. Mainstream theories of democracy don't have the cognitive capacity to grasp the empirical trends in contemporary politics (such as the rise of populist and/or charismatic leaders, partisan polarisation and identity politics) that undermine liberal democracy. They have not adequately addressed the relationship between the normative and empirical dimensions of democracy. The starting point of this research is that the problem with existing theories is not that they are normative, but that they are illusory and leave an unbridgeable gap between empirical research and normative theorising. In this research, we aim to narrow this gap by reconnecting democratic theory with the findings of empirical political science. The main hypothesis of this research is that in order to better understand the contemporary crisis of liberal democracy, we need a robust turn in theorising, i.e. a radical break with the empirical, ontological and epistemological assumptions of classical theories. To understand what is going on in the era of identity politics, we aim to build a theory of democracy that avoids both the weaknesses of descriptive minimalism and the illusionary features of idealist theories. The main puzzle for this project is how to build a realist theory of democracy with strong cognitive power without abandoning its normative potential.

Research period: 2022-2026

Principal investigator:  András Körösényi

Participating researchers:  István Benedek, Attila Gyulai, Gábor Illés, Veronika Patkós, Bendegúz Plesz

Publications:

Illés, Gábor & András Körösényi (2023) The touch of the leader: representation and responsiveness in plebiscitary leader democracy, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, DOI: 10.1080/1600910X.2023.2220086

Plesz, Bendegúz and András Körösényi (2024): „The opportunities and constraints of successful heresthetical strategies: Attitudes, identities and the framing of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Hungary”. (forthcoming)

Körösényi, András: The anchor model of democracy: competition, heresthetics, and identity politics. (under review)