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Paradigms of the Contemporary Crisis of Democracy: A Comparative and Critical Analysis


(Kabardino-Balkarian State University named by Kh.M. Berbekov)

The article is devoted to the critical and comparative study of theories of the crisis of democracy that exist in the contemporary scientifi c literature. They are reduced to four key paradigms. In these paradigms, the crisis of democracy is considered as:
(1) the crisis of development, (2) the crisis of polyarchy (a democracy at the level of nation-state), (3) the crisis of liberal democracy, (4) the result of the "authoritarian resurgence". They can be considered as modifi ed forms of the immanent fundamental contradictions of democracy. These paradigms emphasize the need to redefi ne the fundamentals of the modern model of democracy. The paradigm of the "crises of development" raises the question of revising the relationship between representative and direct democracy.
The paradigm of the "crisis of polyarchy" requires a revision of the concept of "people". The paradigm of the "crisis of the liberal model of democracy" requires finding a new balance between liberal and democratic principles. The paradigm of "authoritarian resurgence" requires the development of new criteria for measuring democracy. The article emphasizes that in contrast to the previous stages of the democratic retreat, at the present stage, the immanent fundamental contradictions of democracymanifest themselves simultaneously. In addition, contemporary theories of the crisis of democracy, unlike previous ones, implicitly admit the need for a radical revision of the paradigmatic foundations of liberal democracy. The author concludes that humanity is faced with the need to develop a new paradigm of democracy that corresponds to the current stage of human development.
democracy, civic political culture, assertive democratic political culture, liberal democracy, polyarchy, globalization,illiberal democracy, non-democratic liberalism, post-democracy, authoritarianism

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