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