Hans-Martien ten Napel publishes volume on democracy as a cultural phenomenon
In collaboration with Routledge, Hans-Martien ten Napel recently published a volume entitled 'Culture, Secularization and Democracy: Lessons from Alexis de Tocqueville', co-edited with Professor Sophie van Bijsterveld (Radboud University Nijmegen).
The volume is a sequel to the previous Dutch-language, Netherlands-focused volume entitled 'Een nieuwe politieke formule. Ideeën voor staat en samenleving geïnspireerd door Alexis de Tocqueville' ('A New Political Formula: Ideas for State and Society Inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville') (2020).
In order to make the new publication relevant to Western democracies in general, it had to start from scratch. For this purpose, an almost entirely new team of European, North American and South American authors was also assembled.
The description of the international volume is as follows:
‘Following the approach developed by Alexis de Tocqueville, this volume views democracy as a cultural phenomenon. It starts from the assumption that if we are to adequately address concerns about the current state and future of modern Western democracies, we first need to tackle the cultural preconditions necessary for a democracy to function.
Since Tocqueville’s time, the book takes the most crucial change in the West to be “double secularisation”. Here, this concerns, first, the diminished influence of organised Christianity. Even though secularity was partly a product of Christianity, secularisation is highly significant in terms of the cultural underpinnings of Western democracy. Second, it involves a decreased interest in and knowledge of classical philosophy.
Chapters on secularity, family life, civic life and public spirit focus on central elements of the changed cultural foundation of democracy, exploring issues such as identity politics, the public space and the role of human rights and natural law in a pluralistic and resilient democracy. The volume concludes with a closer look at the implications of current presentism, that is, the view that only the present counts for the legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic systems. Finally, it asks if double secularisation can also offer fresh opportunities for promoting the conditions of a viable democracy.’
In addition to the introduction to the volume entitled ‘Introduction: A New Political Science’ (in collaboration with Van Bijsterveld), Hans-Martien wrote the chapter on the topical theme of natural law and democracy (‘Truth, Unity and Pluralism’).