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It's a commonplace that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. But in Democratic Legitimacy, Pierre Rosanvallon, one of today's leading political thinkers, argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding. He makes the case that the sources of democratic legitimacy have shifted and multiplied over the past thirty years and that we need to comprehend and make better use of these new sources of legitimacy in order to strengthen our political self-belief and commitment to democracy. Drawing on examples from France and the United States, Rosanvallon notes that there has been a major expansion of independent commissions, NGOs, regulatory authorities, and watchdogs in recent decades. At the same time, constitutional courts have become more willing and able to challenge legislatures. These institutional developments, which serve the democratic values of impartiality and reflexivity, have been accompanied by a new attentiveness to what Rosanvallon calls the value of proximity, as governing structures have sought to find new spaces for minorities, the particular, and the local. 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.

Legitimacy of governments. --- Democracy. --- Governments, Legitimacy of --- Legitimacy (Constitutional law) --- Consensus (Social sciences) --- Revolutions --- Sovereignty --- State, The --- General will --- Political stability --- Regime change --- Self-government --- Political science --- Equality --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- Democracy --- Legitimacy of governments --- Western democracy. --- administration. --- administrative-executive power. --- appropriation. --- bureaucracies. --- bureaucracy. --- care. --- citizens. --- civic life. --- constitution. --- constitutional courts. --- constitutional judges. --- constitutional oversight. --- constitutional review. --- constitutional thought. --- corporatism. --- countermajoritarian difficulty. --- democracy. --- democratic authority. --- democratic ideals. --- democratic impartiality. --- democratic institution. --- democratic institutions. --- democratic legitimacy. --- democratic systems. --- derivative legitimacy. --- direct relations. --- dual legitimacy. --- elections. --- electoral legitimation. --- electoral politics. --- executive functions. --- flexible relations. --- general interest. --- generality. --- government initiatives. --- government intervention. --- government. --- identification. --- identity politics. --- immediate democracy. --- impartiality. --- independent authorities. --- independent commissions. --- indirect democracy. --- informal relations. --- interactive democracy. --- judicial power. --- judicial powers. --- legitimacy. --- majority rule. --- modern individualistic states. --- multiplication. --- new democratic institutions. --- numerical unanimity. --- oversight function. --- participatory democracy. --- particularity. --- pluralization. --- political community. --- political investment. --- political leaders. --- political legitimacy. --- political obligation. --- political representatives. --- presence. --- proximity. --- rational administration. --- reflexive democracy. --- reflexivity. --- regulatory function. --- representation. --- social existence. --- social expectations. --- social gaze. --- substantive unanimity. --- unanimity. --- unelected judges. --- unpolitical democracy.