Systemic Corruption: Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic

Camila Vergara

Published by Princeton University Press 2020

Systemic Corruption

Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic

Camila Vergara

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691208732

Overview
Contents

About this book

A bold new approach to combatting the inherent corruption of representative democracy

This provocative book reveals how the majority of modern liberal democracies have become increasingly oligarchic, suffering from a form of structural political decay first conceptualized by ancient philosophers. Systemic Corruption argues that the problem cannot be blamed on the actions of corrupt politicians but is built into the very fabric of our representative systems.

Camila Vergara provides a compelling and original genealogy of political corruption from ancient to modern thought, and shows how representative democracy was designed to protect the interests of the already rich and powerful to the detriment of the majority. Unable to contain the unrelenting force of oligarchy, especially after experimenting with neoliberal policies, most democracies have been corrupted into oligarchic democracies. Vergara explains how to reverse this corrupting trajectory by establishing a new counterpower strong enough to control the ruling elites. Building on the anti-oligarchic institutional innovations proposed by plebeian philosophers, she rethinks the republic as a mixed order in which popular power is institutionalized to check the power of oligarchy. Vergara demonstrates how a plebeian republic would establish a network of local assemblies with the power to push for reform from the grassroots, independent of political parties and representative government.

Drawing on neglected insights from Niccolò Machiavelli, Nicolas de Condorcet, Rosa Luxemburg, and Hannah Arendt, Systemic Corruption proposes to reverse the decay of democracy with the establishment of anti-oligarchic institutions through which common people can collectively resist the domination of the few.

Author information

Camila Vergara is a postdoctoral research scholar and lecturer at the Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights at Columbia Law School. A former journalist in Chile, she is the coeditor of Machiavelli on Liberty and Conflict. Twitter @Camila_Vergara

Reviews

"Systemic Corruption is an exciting, erudite, and direly relevant book on corruption, mixed government, and the institutional reform of contemporary democracy. Vergara ranges widely through the history of Western political thought, from the pre-Socratics to Hannah Arendt, and proposes a highly original constitutional model that addresses the systemic corruption and elite domination plaguing contemporary democracies."—John P. McCormick, author of Reading Machiavelli: Scandalous Books, Suspect Engagements, and the Virtue of Populist Politics

"A thoughtful work of political philosophy that is clear and well written."—Susan Rose-Ackerman, coauthor of Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: Crisis of the Representative Republic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Systemic Corruption and the Material Constitution
1. Corruption as Political Decay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Elitist Interpretations of the Republic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. On Material Constitutional Thought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
Part II. Plebeian Constitutional Thought
4. Machiavelli on the Plebeian Power to Create and Punish Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
5. Condorcet on Primary Assemblies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
6. Luxemburg on Popular Emancipation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
7. Arendt on the Republic of Parties and Councils Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Part III. Anti-oligarchic Institutions for the Twenty-First Century
8. Contemporary Plebeian Thought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
9. Constitutionalizing the Power of Those Who Do Not Rule Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Epilogue: What Is to Be Done? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283