Neo-liberal definitions of democracy, between critics and recategorization ; Les définitions néolibérales de la démocratie, entre critique et recatégorisation

Open Access

Abstract

International audience ; This introduction to the dossier offers an overview of the different relationships between neoliberalism and democracy. After defining the concept of neoliberalism we develop a typology of the relations between neoliberalism and democracy, highlighting (i) an opposition of neoliberals to a certain concept of democracy, understood as popular sovereignty, (ii) a defense of a limited and framed democracy, taking the form of a constitutional democracy, and finally (iii) a defense of the normative ideal of individual sovereignty realized in the market as converging with the concept of democracy. This introduction therefore proposes a survey of contemporary research in the field, but also contributes to clarifying the issues at stake. Finally, we present the dossier and how the contributions fit into our typology.