In the Shade of Democracy

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the democratic deficiencies lived in the contemporary world. To give an explanation it is necessary to recognize the transformation that democracy had in neoliberal rationality. For this reason, the text is divided into three parts: 1) First, it is presented an outline of the essential characteristics of neoliberal rationality compared with the political rationality of the welfare State; 2) Then, it deepens in the government techniques that have allowed an undemocratization of public life due to neoliberalism, where it is shown that the power of the demos is undermined in pursuit of governance, by systematically questioning the scope of the social and the public sphere; and 3) Finally, some ideas are exposed to re-democratize the public space.