AMBIGUOUS JANUS OF MODERN DEMOCRACY

Romantic Roots of Modern Democracy

Political theorists have paid too little attention to the role of literature and the arts in the shaping of political ideals, and of no period is this more true than Rousseau’s. This is a great shame, for “conceptions of the nature and purpose of art closely parallel man’s conceptions of himself and of his destiny,”1 and they speak to us in ways far more compelling than abstract theory can do. ...

Democracy and the Threat of Kingmaking 1 Thorsten Janus

This paper suggests a way to achieve democratic reforms at no cost despite resistance from incumbent power holders. The key idea is to reward a takeover by a challenger tomorrow if the incumbent does not democratize today. I also discuss democracy movements as challengers, credit constraints, credibility, renegotiation, collusion, reform blocking, democracy reversals, classical kingmaking, demo...

Electronic Cryptography—Chance or Threat for Modern Democracy?

On the Modern and the Nonmodern in Deliberative Environmental Democracy

How Politics Shaped Modern Banking in Early Modern England: Rethinking the Nature of Representative Democracy, Public Debt, and Modern Banking

The recent sovereign debt crisis raises a debate on whether the cancelation of sovereign debt is compatible with democracy. Scholars opposed to the cancelation of sovereign debt refer to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which the British government began to make the people as a whole liable for the obligations incurred by their government. These scholars argue that this commitment formed the...