Abstract

Current threats and developments raise the question whether democracy still functions. This chapter provides a philosophical analysis of democracy as a political regime and as a ‘form’ of society. The essence of democracy will be addressed by using the ideas of Lefort and Arendt; while the concept of a ‘regime’ is studied by analysing key texts of Plato and Aristotle, stating that this regime constitutes a society that is open to the possibility. The ‘openness’ of democracy is then compared to the ontological inversion of the Aristotelian ontology by Heidegger; democratic openness is an openness to the unexpected and the possible. This means that this ‘possibility’ can also be undemocratic. Therefore, the ‘Weimarian’ debate between Kelsen and Schmitt on a ‘constitutional dictatorship’ is discussed, that is a dictatorship in its classical sense, in order to defend the state and the legal order during a state of emergency. This chapter will, however, argue for deriving the militancy of democracy from within democracy itself, rather than from the constitutional state, by analyzing Derrida’s concept of ‘democracy to come’ and Montesquieu’s view on democracy. The chapter concludes by stating that democracy is indeed a fragile regime – it produces a conflictual form of society and is constantly exposed to internal and external threats – but remains a convincing regime.