14. The limits of individual rights and democracy

Politics and Citizenship Space / UNED

In recent decades, discussion about a supposed crisis of democracy has spread. Around this debate, different indicators have been proposed that would indicate this crisis or, in less alarmist visions, the important challenges that contemporary democracies face. On the one hand, the perception has spread that citizens are more dissatisfied with democracy and/or its institutions. On the other hand, this discontent would have favored the transformation or even disappearance of traditional party systems through the translation of this unrest into electoral support for new parties, sometimes radical parties of the left or, more frequently, of the right, and in many cases populists. Finally, and related to this growth of sometimes populist, sometimes radical political options, political polarization would represent a new added problem for the functioning of democracy. But do these phenomena really represent a crisis, a challenge, a threat to our democracies? In what situations should we understand that the individual rights that characterize liberal democracies are in danger? When and how do phenomena of democratic and rights erosion occur? The conversation will discuss these and other related issues.

• Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán, political scientist, professor of Political Science at the UAM, author of Populismos (Alianza Editorial , 2019)
• Luis Ramiro, professor of Political Science at UNED, author of Radical Left Voters in Western Europe (Routledge, 2023 )