Democratic Legitimacy
Impartiality, Reflexivity, Proximity

It's a commonplace that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. This title argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding.

To improve our democracies, we need to use these new sources of legitimacy more effectively and we need to incorporate them into our accounts of democratic government. An original contribution to the vigorous international debate about democratic authority and legitimacy, this promises to be one of Rosanvallon's most important books.

Introduction: The Decentering of Democracies 1


Part One: Dual Legitimacy 15
Chapter One: The Legitimacy of Establishment 17
Chapter Two: The Legitimacy of Identification with Generality 33
Chapter Three: The Great Transformation 60


Part Two: The Legitimacy of Impartiality 73
Chapter Four: Independent Authorities: History and Problems 75
Chapter Five: The Democracy of Impartiality 87
Chapter Six: Is Impartiality Politics? 104


Part Three: Reflexive Legitimacy 121
Chapter Seven: Reflexive Democracy 123
Chapter Eight: The Institutions of Reflexivity 137
Chapter Nine: On the Importance of Not Being Elected 154


Part Four: The Legitimacy of Proximity 169
Chapter Ten: Attention to Particularity 171
Chapter Eleven: The Politics of Presence 187
Chapter Twelve: Interactive Democracy 203
Conclusion: The Democracy of Appropriation 219


Index 227