How Social Movements Can Save Democracy

      Democratic Innovations from Below

      Donatella della Porta

      polity

      Copyright © Donatella della Porta 2020

      The right of Donatella della Porta to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      First published in 2020 by Polity Press

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      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4128-7

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Della Porta, Donatella, 1956- author.

      Title: How social movements can save democracy : democratic innovations from below / Donatella della Porta.

      Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Leading political sociologist della Porta rehabilitates the role social movements have long played in fostering democracy. Bridging social movement studies and democratic theory, she investigates contemporary innovations of the progressive Left in times of crisis and reflects on the potential and limits of such alternative politics”-- Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019029694 (print) | LCCN 2019029695 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509541263 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509541270 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509541287 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Social movements--Political aspects. | Direct democracy. | Right and left (Political science)

      Classification: LCC HM881 .D46 2020 (print) | LCC HM881 (ebook) | DDC 303.48/4--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029694 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029695

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Dedication

      To Alessandro Pizzorno, amico e maestro, in memoria

Acknowledgements

      This volume is based on the assumption that democratic conceptions and practices need constant innovation. In a moment in which various crises converge in challenging existing institutions, it is all the more important to reflect on what can be done in order to save democracy. Progressive social movements have historically been carriers of democratic deepening, elaborating and prefiguring alternative visions that have often then been constitutionalized in democratic institutions. In a period in which attacks on democracy come from the populist Right, research on attempts to improve democratic institutions through increased participatory and deliberative qualities is most important.

      Looking at some of these attempts, with a critical view aimed also at singling out existing limits and conditions for improvement, is my purpose. In this sense, this volume can be seen as building upon and developing some of my previous contributions on related issues: first and foremost in Can Democracy Be Saved? (Polity 2013) and Social Movements in Times of Austerity: Bringing Capitalism Back into Protest Analysis (Polity 2015), but also in Movement Parties against Austerity (Polity 2017), Late Neoliberalism and its Discontents in the Economic Crisis: Comparing Social Movements in the