In Search of Intermediating Capacities: The Interplay of Civic Engagement and Institutionalised Politics

Abstract

AbstractIt’s time to question the capability of the liberal-democratic political system in contemporary societies to handle urgent crises and represent the political will of the citizens. The current erosion and retrieval of intermediate capabilities and procedures in society affects the interplay of civic engagement and institutionalised politics, undermining the vitality of the political system and the legitimacy of democracy. The aim of this book is to contribute to the discussion and understanding of these changes in European countries. The first part of this introduction defines roughly what we mean by institutionalised politics and civic engagement respectively and how we understand intermediation: as a special dimension of their interplay that is not a given but a kind of always contentious and endangered quality. The second part discusses three different strands of (re)thinking the intermediary capacities of democratic systems—political and democratic theory, the civil society/civic engagement and the recent governance debate. They make up for plurality of the respective chapters, their specific limits, merits and innovative potentials. As the book is looking to unfold the mechanisms for democratic repair beyond a ‘bipolar’ antagonism between civic engagement and institutionalised politics, they can altogether be seen as complementary.