perhaps the erosion of democratic vitality is an inevitable result of complexity and size. perhaps we should expect no more than limited popular constraint on the activities of government through regular, weakly competitive elections. perhaps the era of the “affirmative democratic state” – the state which plays a creative and active role in solving problems in response to popular demands – is over, and a retreat to privatism and political passivity is the unavoidable price of “progress.” but perhaps the problem has more to do with the specific design of our institutions than with the tasks they face as such. if so, then a fundamental challenge for the left is to develop transformative democratic strategies that can advance our traditional values – egalitarian social justice, individual liberty combined with popular control over collective decisions, community and solidarity, and the flourishing of individuals in ways which enable them to realize their potentials// fung & wright, deepening democracy
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