The Spirit of Democracy

Jason Frank, John L. Senior Chair of Government, Cornell University As democracy enters another period of crisis, threatened not only by its neoliberal and autocratic enemies, but by the despair and disorientation of its citizens, Sofia Nsstrm's new book offers a bracing call for democratic renewal. If we want to save democracy, Nsstrm argues, we must abandon the 'people trap' of popular sovereignty, and to restore democracy we need a new language for understanding why it is worth defending. Nsstrm develops that language through her distinctive account of the 'the spirit of emancipation'. A brilliant contribution to contemporary democratic theory.

Professor Cristbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile In this path-breaking book, Sofia Nsstrm maintains that we need to go beyond the idea of the sovereign people as the foundation of modern democracy and focus instead on the spiritof emancipation. By adopting this perspective, the book offers novel and convincing arguments about not only the problems that democracy is facing today, but also how democracy can be renovated. Anyone who cares about the future of democracy will want to engage with this eye-opening book.

Sofia Nasstroem is Professor at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. She specializes in political theory, and has written on topics related to democracy, legitimacy, the people, and representation. She leads the project Democratic Self-Defence: The Social Model at Uppsala University, and has recently published a popular science book on democracy in Swedish.

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY 1: Rousseau's people trap 2: The principle of emancipation 3: Democratic freedom PART II: THREE CONTESTED ISSUES 4: Election 5: Social rights 6: Citizenship status Conclusion