The Law As a Conversation among Equals

"I am writing this book during difficult political times (and I am writing it at this particular moment largely because of them). We live in the era of the "Arab Spring," Occupy Wall Street in the United States, and the rise of Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain, not to mention the 'They all must go' movement in Argentina ("Que se vayan todos "). It is a time of massive demonstrations and protest against current authorities in Catalonia and Ecuador, a time when millions have descended to the streets to demand President Piänera's resignation in Chile. Many of our constitutional democracies seem haunted by the same specter, that of "democratic fatigue" or "discontent." Citizens seem fed up with their government institutions and tired of those who represent them in it. The notion of "democratic fatigue" and the related sense that democracy is being "eroded from within" to the point of being hollowed out are commonplace in the current social science literature (I am writing in the fall of 2019). No longer are we as worried by the prospect of democracies "dying in a single blow" as was typical in the recent post-colonial era of military coups and dictatorships. Rather, we now talk about the "slow death" of our democracies through a gradual "dismantling" of their institutions by leaders who have consolidated their power in a series of arguably legal moves"--