Ideology and low intensity democracy

Brown-O'Byrne, Fergus (2011) Ideology and low intensity democracy. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis will provide an account of how our ideological relationship with democracy is responsible for the problematic phenomenon of low intensity democracy. Low intensity democracy is a relatively recent phenomenon that is becoming a growing concern in a number of fields of study. Low intensity democracy describes a democratically impoverished state. Despite the fact that some basic democratic institutions such as elections are in place, a lack of support and encouragement for democratic development produces a democratically stagnant state. Furthermore, important social and economic challenges remain unaddressed. This thesis will explore the works of Slavoj Žižek’s and the works of the numerous contributors to the democratic ideal including Aristotle, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Hannah Arendt, in order to establish the link between ideology and low intensity democracy. -- Chapter one will explore Žižek’s work and its pertinence to the task at hand. Žižek’s focus on an individual's relationship to ideology will prove invaluable in exploring the many nuances of ideological relationships. Chapter two will contrast the democratic idea, the collective activities and goals of democracy, with low intensity democracy. The final chapter will use the tools that have been laid out in the previous chapters to establish the precise link between ideology and low intensity democracy. It will be argued that the western experience of contemporary democracy produces the conditions that give rise to an ideological relationship with democracy that allows and encourages low intensity democracy.

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