Democracy must be deliberately cultivated rather than assumed natural.

Evidence

These questions also challenge the Western liberal democratic conceit that humans have a natural and persistent desire for democracy. They presume instead that democratic self-rule must be consciously valued, cultured, and tended by a people seeking to practice it and that it must vigilantly resist myriad economic, social, and political forces threatening to deform or encroach upon it. They presume the need to educate the many for democracy, a task that grows as the powers and problems to be addressed increase in complexity. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 16

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to Tocqueville’s ‘habits of the heart’ and Dewey’s education-for-democracy; reverses the whiggish liberal claim that democracy is a natural West-endowed good. — connects to: Democracy is not self-sustaining and may need undemocratic supplements. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 413; Democracy must be redesigned to deliberately raise the value of devalued citizens; Substantive democracy required deliberately raising the political value of devalued Untouchables (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Democracy is not self-sustaining and may need undemocratic supplements. #corroborates (0.95) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 413
• Democracy must be redesigned to deliberately raise the value of devalued citizens #expands (0.80)
• Substantive democracy required deliberately raising the political value of devalued Untouchables #expands (0.80)
• Substantive democracy in a caste society requires deliberately equalizing the value of devalued citizens #expands (0.80) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1321
• Democratic existence needs wealth limits, public-good citizenship, and discerning citizens #expands (0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 365
• Modernity and democracy are contested concepts, not checkable off-the-shelf goods #qualifies (0.72) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 31
• Democracy is endangered by assuming all human action is rational #complicates (0.72)