It's a commonplace that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. This title argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding.

Introduction: The Decentering of Democracies 1 Part One: Dual Legitimacy 15 Chapter One: The Legitimacy of Establishment 17 Chapter Two: The Legitimacy of Identification with Generality 33 Chapter Three: The Great Transformation 60 Part Two: The Legitimacy of Impartiality 73 Chapter Four: Independent Authorities: History and Problems 75 Chapter Five: The Democracy of Impartiality 87 Chapter Six: Is Impartiality Politics? 104 Part Three: Reflexive Legitimacy 121 Chapter Seven: Reflexive Democracy 123 Chapter Eight: The Institutions of Reflexivity 137 Chapter Nine: On the Importance of Not Being Elected 154 Part Four: The Legitimacy of Proximity 169 Chapter Ten: Attention to Particularity 171 Chapter Eleven: The Politics of Presence 187 Chapter Twelve: Interactive Democracy 203 Conclusion: The Democracy of Appropriation 219 Index 227

"This book is an illuminating analysis of the transformed problem of political legitimacy that exists in contemporary democracy. It should be read by anyone seriously interested in thinking through the dangers posed by the climate of political distrust that has become normal in democratic regimes... Rosanvallon here undertakes a comprehensive, in-depth investigation of the problem of legitimacy. He provides a new framework and new vocabulary for analyzing the problem and hence proposing a way forward."--Choice "[T]his excellent book should stimulate the reflection of those who seek to better understand the evolution of democracy and its justifications... Rosanvallon's quest for the sources of democratic legitimacy in an uncertain age opens up a fascinating dialogue between the past and present, highlighting how three key countries have struggled with concerns for liberty and the democratic idea."--Survival "[T]he book's main attraction: sharp, self-contained historical accounts of specific issues and ideas, where Rosanvallon's thinking is clearly at its best."--Paulina Ochoa Espejo, European Political Science "An original contribution to the vigorous international debate about democratic authority and legitimacy, this promises to be one of Rosanvallon's most important books."--World Book Industry

"A historian and foremost theorist of democracy, Pierre Rosanvallon has produced another very insightful book, this time on the great variety of sources of democratic legitimation, and their evolving importance in contemporary society. This work casts fresh light on today's liberal democracies, and opens new potential avenues for their renewal. For those concerned about where our politics are heading, this book provides a penetrating historical analysis to make sense of it all, and perhaps also some new reasons to hope."—Charles Taylor, author of Multiculturalism and A Secular Age"It is a cause for celebration when one of our most eminent theorists of democracy chooses to illuminate deep and stressful issues with rigor and originality. Probing tensions inherent in the distinction between majorities who decide and a more abstract people said to be sovereign, Pierre Rosanvallon identifies the inescapable contradictions inherent in different bases and forms of legitimacy, brilliantly showing why and how modern democracy is charged, fluid, and unsettled."—Ira Katznelson, coauthor of Liberal Beginnings: Making a Republic for the Moderns"This is a major work that deserves to have a large impact on current political theory, and its investigation of historical episodes of democratic legitimation make it of obvious interest to U.S. and European historians as well."—Samuel Moyn, Columbia University"This is an important and unique work in the theory and history of democratic legitimacy. It is contextually situated but offers general propositions about the conditions, meaning, and institutional forms for democratic legitimacy in the twenty-first century."—Jean L. Cohen, Columbia University