REVIEW article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1493830
This article is part of the Research TopicReview Symposium: The Problem of DemocracyView all 7 articles
The fragility of Democratic Minimalism: Why the ballot is insufficient for democracy
Provisionally accepted
- University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
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This paper engages Hamid’s (2022) democratic minimalism which proposes democracy via ballot form is not only necessary but sufficient for democracy to flourish. Hamid proposes a state sustaining democratic norms such as voting, free elections, and protection of civil society enlarging the ideological playing field creating different types of democratic states. However, this paper argues this argument fails to protect democracy. By narrowing the scope for procedural democracy to protect itself Hamid opens the door for authoritarianism to emerge democratically.The paper demonstrates this both theoretically and practically via a case study of Hungary. Focusing on the emergence of electoral authoritarianism and polarization, the paper argues procedural democracy cannot reliably retain its shape in a minimalist setting. Through a theoretical realist lens the paper highlights the limits of minimalism arguing democracy requires a thicker relationship to value via deliberation in order for a sustainable arrangement of democracy to emerge. The conclusion of the paper is that minimalism is too thin to sustain democracy creating the conditions for its ultimate demise as shown in the case study of Hungary.
Keywords: feasibility, Proceduralism, democratic minimalism, electoral authoritarian, Hungary
Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mace. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sam Mace, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
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