Thinking Democracy Against Itself: Anti-Democratic Limits and Democratic Transformation

Abstract

This thesis examines the conditions under which limits on popular sovereignty can be justified as democratic and when such limits threaten democracy’s core principles. From the democratic foundations of popular sovereignty, political equality and collective self-government, the thesis develops an analytical framework based on four criteria: source, equality, justification and self-government. This framework is then applied to different forms of democratic limitation, including representation and institutional mediation, emergency power, revolutionary authority and epistocracy. By assessing thinkers such as Dahl, Habermas, Manin, Rosanvallon, Schmitt, Agamben, Ypi and Brennan, this thesis shows how limits on popular sovereignty are not necessarily anti-democratic. Whereas some limits protect democratic rule, others reconfigure its meaning or displace democratic legitimacy altogether. The central argument throughout this thesis is that limits remain democratic only if political authority is still connected to citizens as equal co-authors. When authority is justified by necessity, expertise, sovereign decision or future emancipation, it can move beyond democratic self-limitation and become a threat to democracy itself