Una teoría de la democracia compleja

The main threat to democracy is not violence or corruption or inefficiency, but simplicity. From the point of view of the theory of democracy, this book offers an update of our political concepts, which were thought in a time of relative social and political simplicity. This theoretical deficit corresponds to a political practice that simplifies and impoverishes our democracies. Our political systems are not being able to manage the growing complexity of the world and are powerless against those who offer a reassuring simplification. Politics, which currently operates in highly complex environments, has not yet found its democratic theory. It no longer has to face the problems of the 19th or 20th century, but those of the 21st. If democracy has made the transition from the polis to the national State, from direct to representative democracy, there is no reason to suppose that it cannot face new challenges, as long as it is endowed with an adequate political architecture. This book is aimed at those who do not believe in simple answers, but do not want to despair in the face of the complexity of the problems. It formulates a theory of democracy and government for the 21st century based on the assumption that the most promising renewal of our democracies will be the result of making them more complex.