Charles Taylor on Degenerations and Regenerations of Democracy

Democracy in Question? - A podcast by Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy

Why is democracy prone to degeneration, and how does this affect our conventional notions of democracy itself? Do we usually depend too much on a thin formal institutional conception of democracy focused on electoral routines, and thus, neglect broader questions of class, culture, equality, and solidarity? How can we reimagine and also regenerate progressive democracy with the right balance of freedom, equality, and solidarity on the local, national, as well as supranational levels? And how can we overcome the pervasive sense of powerlessness in the face of abstract impersonal forces, forces that Charles Taylor refers to not only as opaque, but also as those signalling the loss of citizen efficacy?