A Critical Appraisal of Exclusion, Toleration, and Social Integration

Abstract

This chapter critically summarises, assesses, and compares the three ideal types of democratic self-defence presented in this book. The first part translates the book’s insights into a concise theoretical framework of democratic self-defence, and offers an overview of measures, classified according to the type of actors that implement them. The second part analyses the strengths and weakness of each of the three types of democratic self-defence, such as the unrepresentativeness produced by militant democracy, the defeatism of tolerant democracy, and the slowness of the social approach. The third part examines whether the three types can complement each other. It argues that while, in practice, it is perfectly possible to combine different responses to democratic threats, this strategy will need to navigate the normative tensions that arise from the different ways in which each of the three types conceptualises democracy and its threats.