Democracy without shortcuts: a conversation with Cristina Lafont

Interview by Humberto Beck

Abstract

In this conversation with Humberto Beck, professor at El Colegio de México, political philosopher Cristina Lafont, author of Democracy without Shortcuts: A Participatory Conception of Deliberative Democracy (Spain, Trotta, 2021), defends democracy as a form of self-government that materializes when all citizens have the possibility to form an informed opinion on fundamental collective issues, influence political decisions that affect their lives, and challenge those that violate their rights, even when they may enjoy majority support. A disciple of Jürgen Habermas and a professor in the Philosophy Department at Northwestern University, Lafont examines the weaknesses of political proposals, both populist and technocratic, that present themselves as “shortcuts” to democracy. In contrast, she puts forward a vision based on the participatory exercise of deliberative democracy. In this conception, democratic legitimacy does not arise spontaneously from the arithmetic of votes or from an informed minority making the right decisions, but from debate in a public sphere where citizens, in full exercise of their freedoms, present their positions, try to persuade each other, and assume the obligation to justify to their fellow citizens those decisions that will equally bind them. Without ignoring the problems of contemporary democracies, Lafont vindicates the value of institutions like elections, political parties, and the judicial review of decisions made by majority powers, while also discussing the flaws of new, seemingly democratic proposals that invoke citizen deliberation but restrict their participation. Ultimately, she concludes, all these shortcuts are mirages. To preserve democracy and improve life in common, there is no substitute for the arduous political work of convincing and reasoning among equals.