Should we stop talking about “democracy”? Conceptual abandonment and the perils of political discourse

Abstract

In his recent book, The Concept of Democracy: An Essay on Conceptual Amelioration and Abandonment (OUP, 2023) Herman Cappelen argues that we should abandon the concept of democracy, and hence stop using the words “democracy” and “democratic.” In the course of developing his arguments for this surprising claim, Cappelen also offers a more general theory of what kind of reasons count in favor of abandoning a concept. In this paper, which is part of a book symposium on Cappelen’s book, I review and criticize both his theory of abandonment and his case for abandoning the concept of democracy. I argue that Cappelen’s abandonment theory is inconclusive and that his case for abandoning the concept of democracy is unconvincing.