David van Reybrouck — Populism, Democracy, and Art Limits
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A conversation with the writer David van Reybrouck about populism, the renovation of democracy, and the limits of art as a political tool. Brussels, 30 January 2012.
Van Reybrouck challenges the reflexive dismissal of populism: whenever you did not agree with someone you called him a populist and that was the end of the story. There was something profoundly populist in calling people populist. He argues that to fight the popularity of the right, it is not enough to criticize populist leaders — one must understand why so many people are inclined to vote for them.
The hostility of online discourse, he suggests, stems from the scarcity of democratic participation: people are hostile on the internet because they can only vote once every couple of years. His proposed remedy — sortition, citizens assemblies, deliberative democracy — represents a structural reform rather than an artistic intervention, but it directly engages the question of how participation can be made real rather than symbolic.