On legitimacy and chronic crisis.

Benjamin Studebaker talks to Alex and Lee about his book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracy – and why the absence of the threat of revolution makes the crisis drag on.

• What's wrong with 20th century accounts of legitimacy crises? What's changed?
• Why is contemporary politics so stuck? Is it inescapable?
• How does the breakdown of consensus make the emergence of a social majority so difficult?
• Is there no common programme we can agree on, focused on bread-and-butter issues?
• Do we need to stare despair in the face? Is catastrophe the only way out?

For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

• Legitimacy in Liberal Democracy, Benjamin Studebaker, Edinburgh UP
• UNLOCKED: /361/ A Nightmare on the Brains of the Living ft. Benjamin Studebaker
• Debilitated democracy: When the legs get ripped off, Dirk Jörke and Benjamin Studebaker, European Journal of Social Theory