On the Delegitimizing Force of Democracy’s Epistemic Dysfunctions An Institutional Integrity Account

Abstract

Speaker: Michele Giavazzi - LMU Munich Abstract: Democracy endows citizens with political decision-making powers, which are mostly exercised in the context of voting. Yet democratic societies display epistemic dysfunctions - widespread political misinformation or ignorance, epistemic injustices, polarization, propaganda, etc. - that obstruct the ability of citizens to act as informed and competent political decision-makers. While few would doubt that this is a problem for democracy, whether it is something that impinges on the legitimacy of its institutions and decisions is a more complex issue. In this paper I contend that said dysfunctions do, to an extent, undermine democratic legitimacy. However, I explain this in terms that diverge from the more common instrumentalist approach, which focuses on their impact on the quality of political outcomes. I argue, instead, that said dysfunctions have delegitimizing effects because they undercut the institutional integrity of central democratic practices such as voting and political deliberation. They do so by thwarting their ability to achieve their own self-proclaimed goal and normative rationale: a proper joint co-authorship of political decisions by citizens. This amounts to a corrosion of the authoritativeness of democratic decision-making practices that is normatively significant regardless of its ultimate impact on the quality of political outcomes.