THE CRISIS ON WESTERN DEMOCRACIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

the problem of representation and the hatred of politics

Abstract

In his book Against Elections, David Van Reybrouck argues that democracy today faces a crisis of legitimacy and efficiency: fewer people participate in political procedures and governments are no longer able to solve problems promptly. He identifies four culprits for what he calls the Democratic Fatigue Syndrome: politicians, democracy, representative democracy, and elective representative democracy. However, most of his comments emphasize European data and events, in order to later present a general problem with democracy. This article proposes to try to argue that Reybrouck's analysis could be applied to western democracies and that the problems generated by the discontent with the representative system expands hatred not only for democracy but also for politics. This occurs by the fact that today the representative model is commonly seen as inseparable from democracy, which, in turn, is seen inseparable from politics, so that, discontent with the representation turns into hatred for politics.