The crisis of the democratic imaginary: How anti-democratic imaginaries foster democratic malaise

Scholars have dealt extensively with the crisis of liberal democracy, yet there has been a notable absence in exploring the role that imaginaries might play in intensifying this crisis. This paper suggests they are a crucial, overlooked element for understanding democratic malaise. To start, I argue that the imaginary, with its productive, collective, normative, and pluralistic nature, proves to be a more helpful concept than other potentially similar ones. It helps to explain how liberal democracy can be appreciated as an ideal while being vehemently contested in its institutional and tangible manifestations (e.g. politicians, parties, policymaking), shedding light on both communicative and political issues. This contention arises because three anti-democratic imaginaries challenge democracy: the technocratic imaginary, the neoliberal imaginary, and the anti-political imaginary. The crisis of the democratic imaginary consists of the fact that, although its ideal foundations remain solid, anti-democratic imaginaries hinder democracy’s effective functioning by laying the ground for anti-democratic discourses and making political action increasingly complex from an individual, collective, and institutional perspective. In short, some contemporary imaginaries are harmful to liberal democracies. To reverse the crisis of democracy, acting on common sense and addressing issues stemming from these imaginaries is therefore essential.