Affirming democracy: Should we exaggerate support for democracy to save it?

Democracies around the world have increasingly faced concerted efforts to dismantle democratic institutions. How should public speakers respond to such attempts at democratic backsliding? A widespread rhetorical strategy is to affirm democracy —that is, to publicly invoke the value of democracy and vigorously insist on the need to defend it. I argue that this practice gives rise to an underappreciated democratic dilemma. On one hand, distinctive features of the backsliding process seemingly require us to affirm democracy. Yet, on the other hand, this practice also poses serious dangers for democracy. For one, it risks accelerating democratic erosion. Moreover, efforts to limit this risk seemingly violate democratic requirements of truthfulness. So, both affirming democracy and failing to do so involve significant democratic pitfalls. The best way to navigate this dilemma, I contend, is not to forgo affirming democracy. Instead, it is to do so in a way that emphasises elites’ concrete attacks on democracy, while insisting that most people are strongly committed to democracy. While this approach may indeed involve some deception—insofar as it may knowingly overstate support for democracy—this is often all-things-considered justified.