Future Publics: Democracy, Deliberation, and Future-Regarding Collective Action

Scholars have often claimed that democracies, whatever their virtues, are functionally short-sighted. The evidence is clear: we have been unable to manage many long-term issues including climate change, nuclear waste disposal, natural disaster preparedness, infrastructure maintenance, and
budget deficits. If voters and influential actors, such as interest groups and corporations, have dominant short-term interests, it may be difficult for elected politicians to act in the long-term interests of society, even if they think that it would be the right thing to do. To solve long-term
problems, do we need political systems that are less democratic, or even authoritarian?

This idea, which Michael K. MacKenzie calls the democratic myopia thesis, is a sort of conventional wisdom; it is an idea that scholars and pundits take for granted as a truth about democracy without subjecting it to adequate critical scrutiny. In Future Publics, MacKenzie challenges this
conventional wisdom and articulates a deliberative, democratic theory of future-regarding collective action. Specifically, MacKenzie argues that each part of the democratic myopia problem can be addressed through democratic--rather than authoritarian--means. At a more fundamental level, once we
recognize that democratic practices are world-making activities that empower us to make our shared worlds together, they should also be understood as future-making activities. Despite the short-term dynamics associated with electoral democracy, MacKenzie asserts that we need more inclusive and
deliberative democracies if we are going to make shared futures that will work for us all.


Author: Michael K. MacKenzie
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 06/25/2021
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780197557150

About the Author

Michael K. MacKenzie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh.