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Legitimate Opposition

Online ISBN:
9780300268744
Print ISBN:
9780300243468
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Book

Legitimate Opposition

Alexander S. Kirshner
Alexander S. Kirshner
Duke University
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Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
20 September 2022
Online ISBN:
9780300268744
Print ISBN:
9780300243468
Publisher:
Yale University Press

Abstract

In political systems defined by legitimate opposition, those who hold power allow their rivals to peacefully challenge and displace them, and those who have lost power do not seek to sabotage the winners. Legitimate opposition came under assault at the American capitol on January 6, 2021, and is menaced by populists and autocrats across the globe. This book provides the first sustained theory of legitimate opposition since the Cold War. On the orthodox view, democracy is lost when legitimate opposition is subverted. But efforts to reconcile opposition with democracy fail to identify the value of the frequently imperfect, unfair, and inegalitarian real-world practice. Marshaling a revisionist reconstruction of opposition's history, the book provides a new account of opposition's value fit for the twenty-first century and shows why, given the difficult conditions of political life, legitimate opposition is an achievement worth defending.

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