Craig J. Calhoun
Democracy
Democracy has been a goal of popular struggles throughout the modern era. In the late 20th century, it was widely viewed as the obvious path for progress in government. Today it is challenged not only by authoritarian regimes and other competitors but also by internal degenerations and upheavals.
Democracy has been an important goal and widespread achievement throughout the modern era, but it has also sometimes been reversed, has often been subject to struggle, and is under stress and challenge today.
Craig Calhoun's work has addressed popular struggles for public voice and democracy, the relationship of popular struggles to ‘republican’ projects of designing better laws and institutions, and the importance of social foundations for democracy. Most recently, with Dilip Gaonkar and Charles Taylor, Craig Calhoun addressed the Degenerations of Democracy (link to where this appears under publications). This book focuses primarily on Europe and North America but in other work, he addresses global dimensions of democracy and related social transformations.
Recent Publications
Work in Progress
Good Elites? Insurgent subalterns are commonly blamed for ‘populism’ and other stresses on democracy. This obscures the role of manipulative, exploitative, and predatory elites. In collaboration with Dilip Gaonkar, this book explores republicanism and other traditions articulating norms for good elites and reasons why many formations of social elites are problematic. Special attention falls on the notions that ‘merit’ and expertise can justify elite privilege or domination.
“Revolt against the Republic,” an analysis of efforts to disrupt the US electoral process and normative republican order in the name of direct expression of popular will, including the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.