Abstract
AbstractWhile democratic societies experience intense conflicts about topics such as migration and climate action, there is no sound theory of democratic conflict. Agonistic theories emphasize the importance of conflict for democracy, but disregard conflict dynamics. Conflict sociology has focused on international or violent conflicts and neglects democratic conflicts. This article shows how this lacuna can be overcome. First, it develops an innovative, empirically informed processual approach to democratic conflicts. To this end, it draws on a broad range of scholarship from sociology and social psychology, and integrates relevant insights into a processual framework for analyzing democratic conflicts that explores mechanisms of escalation, de-escalation, and reconciliation. Second, the article illustrates how this approach can ground a more elaborated democratic theory of conflict that concretizes how and when conflicts are beneficial to democracy, and explores the practices and institutions that democracies employ to cope with different conflict dynamics.
Funder
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference105 articles.
1. Angell, R. C. (1965). The sociology of human conflict. In E. B. McNeil (Ed.), The Nature of Human Conflict (pp. 91–115). Prentice-Hall.
2. Arendt, H. (2015). Zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft (U. Ludz, Ed.; 3rd ed.). Piper.
3. Arendt, H. (2006). On revolution. Penguin Books.
4. August, V. (2022). Understanding democratic conflicts: The failure of agonistic theory. European Journal of Political Theory, 23(2), 182–203.
5. August, V. (2023). Solidarität: Konstellationen und Dynamiken in der Spätmoderne. In J. Legrand, B. Linden, & H.-J. Arlt (Eds.), Transformation und Emanzipation. Perspektiven für Arbeit und Demokratie (pp. 89–100). Springer VS.