Real Democracy in the Occupy Movement ─ No Stable Ground

The liberal representative model of democracy is in crisis. The Occupy movement and other recent anti-austerity movements are redefining democracy as a positive way to engage with this crisis. The more direct democratic models of organisation that they are employing are not aimed at making the politicians regain their lost public legitimacy. Instead, direct democracy is perceived by these movements as a radical alternative to the established forms of representation. Can direct democracy become an actual alternative to representative democracy?

This book takes an engaged and in-depth look at the Occupy movement in Ireland and the San Francisco Bay Area in the US in order to present the most up-to-date evidence of the changing nature of popular democratic demands. Establishing links between social movements and transformations of democracy, as well as underscoring the significance of the recent movements for the future of democracy, this book is essential reading for students, scholars and activists interested in social movements, radical politics and current affairs more generally.

Anna Szolucha is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway.