LITERAL 29

Reviews

Film

LITERAL 29
Post-Democracy
/ Postdemocracia

It is hard to admit that in Mexico, we find ourselves threatened by the worst pitfalls of democratic life before we have been able to master its most rudimentary elements. It would seem that today’s political agenda is exclusively the province of groups with clout (economic clout, that is) or members of a political class that is prone to endogamy. Regarding this sort of circumstances the British writer Colin Crouch uses the term “post- democracy”: it isn’t the form of government that is in decline—he says—rather, its efficacy and capacity for innovation have been transferred elsewhere. The main theme of this issue of Literal has been determined by elections both in Mexico and in the U.S. In this sense and regarding some of the dilemmas faced today by more mature European and North American democracies, as well as the turbulent Mexican experience, we offer a timely reflection by Mark Lilla, an interview of Colin Crouch and a brief text regarding the #YoSoy132 movement of Mexico.

Our issue is complemented by different texts motivated by recent awards won by Martha Nussbaum (2012 Príncipe de Asturias Prize) and Ernesto Cardenal (2012 Reina Sofía Prize).