Democracy and Constitutionalism: A Nonpopulistic Remark

Recent anti-political, moralizing, populist and plebiscitary reactions all over Europe are ‘disfiguring’ democracy by displacing the centre of gravity in the debates from real to ideal, or idealized, forms of democracy; and by focusing the political attention on decisions, or ‘decisionist’ moves, instead of proceduralized deliberative debates. That way, anti-parliamentarism as a form of anti-systemic reaction, reminiscent of early twentieth-century criticism, has disquietingly become an integral part of many right and left populist parties, especially since the 2000s, from France to Poland and Hungary, from the Netherlands to Germany and the Nordic countries. In less than fifteen years not only have they changed the European landscape of local governments. They are nurturing government options at both national and supranational politics. This paper deals with the rising populist claim that democratic decisions override both legal norms and parliamentary procedures. It argues, in a counter-intuitive manner, that its acceptance, theoretical and practical, reduces to absurdity the basic understanding of democracy in constitutional states, and opens the door to democratic regression.