The Annual Review for the Sciences of the Democracies - Current Issue

Political theorists have recently proposed to democratise the theory of democracy. Hans Asenbaum argues that one can learn from the experiences and approaches of democratic innovations. These proposals are to be welcomed and can indeed bring a new quality to democratic theory by making it more inclusive. However, there are some aspects that need to be considered. These include the irreconcilability of power discrepancies in the different stages of participation processes between the actors involved, as well as the clarification of the basic assumptions of democratic theory. This article argues for reflecting on these inequalities in the distribution of roles and making them, as well as the underlying definitions in participation processes, more transparent. It ends with some reflections to improve and strengthen the idea of democratic theorising.

This research note examines the concept of parasitical solidarity, a term borrowed and re-developed from Sally Scholz’s work, to address the phenomenon of misappropriated solidarity. By further developing the concept of parasitical solidarity, it aims to provide empirical researchers with a robust framework for analysing specific practices and institutions. The concept of parasitical solidarity proposed here captures instances where solidarity is misappropriated to further nefarious interests rather than genuinely supporting oppressed groups or fighting an injustice. After outlining the theoretical foundations of solidarity and discussing its ontological, normative, and empirical dimensions, this paper highlights the limitations and dangers associated with solidaristic practices. It also gives guidance as to how the concept of parasitical solidarity can be applied to real-world phenomena, using the examples of the GameStop incident of 2021 and the Brexit vote in 2016. Ultimately, this note seeks to contribute to a better understanding of solidarity’s role in society and its potential misappropriation, thereby empowering social scientists to critically reflect on solidarity across interpersonal, group, and institutional levels.