Review of Justo Serrano Zamora, Democratization and Struggles Against Injustice. A Pragmatist Approach to the Epistemic Practices of Social Movements

Abstract

It has become commonplace to talk about the "crisis" of democracies, to denote various current phenomena such as abstention, rise of authoritarian governments through electoral processes themselves, or a supposed inability of democratic institutions to address pressing problems like environmental issues. In response to such diagnoses, public discourses and philosophical theories of democracy have taken two main paths. On the one hand, criticisms of the intrinsic limits of democracy have emerged, pointing out its inherent inefficiency. As Justo Serrano Zamora argues in this book, this path usually leads to defend "restrictions in citizens' participation or the substitution of experts for democratic representatives" (71). On the other hand, the diagnosis of democratic crisis has led to an endeavor to strengthen theoretical justifications of democracy. Democratization and Struggles Against Injustice falls within the latter. As the book relevantly remarks, these justifications of democracy, in turn, can be divided into two main trends. First, a set of "epistemic justifications" attempts at demonstrating democracy's efficiency, that is to say its ability to generate good outcomes and to solve social problems (XVI). Secondly, a set of "intrinsic justifications" puts the emphasis on Review of Justo Serrano Zamora, Democratization and Struggles Against Injusti...