Real freedom for all turtles in Sugarscape? - Presses universitaires ...

192A r g u i n g a b o u t j u s t i c ecountries believe in democracy and trust the democratic politicalinstitutions. We are very interested in these topics because we believe – andin this we only follow the political and public debates – that something iswrong (Norris 2011). We assume that there is something around that can becalled a crisis of democracy. There are several reasons for that. Take forinstance the turnout in elections. Electing a parliamentary assembly thatrepresents the will of the people is a central and crucial component of a wellfunctioningdemocracy. Yet when the citizens are invited to contribute tothis very important act of electing a parliament, an increasing number ofthem simply remain at home. Quite spectacular is the evolution of theturnout for the elections to the European Parliament. In 1979 it was alreadyquite low – by European standards – with 67% of the European citizensturning out to vote. Yet since then the turnout kept going down at everyelection. In 1999 it went below 50% – a turnout of 49,9% – and in 2009 only43% of the Europeans turned out to vote.There are other indicators that point in the same direction of citizensturning their back to the organizations and institutions of representativedemocracy. Political scientists keep track of the evolution of the membershipof political parties, and if you want to see graphs with lines that go down ata very steep rate, this is the place to watch. Surveys asking about trust inpolitical parties also reveal a sharp decrease to frighteningly low figures.Another apparently disturbing factor is the rise and success of politicalparties that mobilize voters with a discourse that is thoroughly antiestablishmentand especially accusing the political and societal elite of beinghopelessly disconnected from the real demands and concerns of the people.Representative democracy – so they claim – is a perversion because therepresentatives have lost touch with the people who they should trulyrepresent. They point especially at policies related to immigration andasylum seekers, and to the blatant refusal of the established elite tounderstand the damage that these policies have caused for the security andthe traditional culture, values, and religious beliefs of ordinary citizens.And since all this is indeed framed as a crisis of democracy, politicalscientists are quite eager to understand what is going on. Are we indeedwitnessing a decrease in the belief and trust in democracy as it was built –with all its checks and balances – after the Second World War and after thedisastrous collapse of a number of democracies in 1920s and 1930s? Theeasiest way to check for that is simply to ask people. In most surveyquestionnaires drafted since the 1990s we therefore include a few questionsabout trust in political institutions and quite often also a straightforwardquestion about ‘satisfaction with democracy’. Yet by asking these simple andstraightforward questions we tend to forget that the very concept is debated,