The Erosion of DemocracyDirk Jörke

11 June 2026

Dirk Jörke (TU Darmstadt ) presents his project in the Interdisciplinary Research Seminar of the GRK "Collective Decision-Making”.

Time: 17:15 - 18:45
Location: Von-Melle-Park 5, Room 0031 (next to HASPA Café)

Abstract

While democratic theorists often argue that democracy is in crisis, they nonetheless maintain it retains the capacity to revive itself. I argue that instead democracy has been eroded – it has lost certain preconditions that are necessary for it to credibly make the promises long associated with it. Drawing on  Michael Th. Greven, I make the case that modernisation and democracy have become opposed, such that the more modernisation intensifies, the more eroded or exhausted democracy becomes. This process of erosion involves “ratchet effects”, such that it becomes steadily less possible to restore lost capacities.

Find the abstract as PDF here.