Democratic existence needs wealth limits, public-good citizenship, and discerning citizens

Evidence

In short, the essential conditions of democratic existence remain these: limited extremes of concentrated wealth and poverty, orientation toward citizenship as a practice of considering the public good, and citizens modestly discerning about the ways of power, history, representation, and justice. Each of these conditions is severely challenged by neoliberal rationality and policy. Indeed, limits on wealth and poverty and educated citizens oriented toward problems of public life are left in the dust by neoliberal values, governance, and the dismantled social state. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 365

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rousseau held that bounded wealth inequality is required for democratic law — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 654; Democracy must be deliberately cultivated rather than assumed natural. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 16; Extreme wealth inequality makes common legislation impossible in a democracy — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 363 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• True democracy requires that every citizen can potentially govern #expands (0.75)
• Neoliberal rationality makes inequality normal and normative in democracy #corroborates (0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 63
• Power cannot self-realize but depends on societal-structural conditions for legitimacy #complicates (0.70)