The Invisible Crisis of Democracy: A Conceptual Inquiry into Civic Fatigue

Authors : Muhammed Ramazan Demirci

Pages : 1-18

Doi:10.29064/ijma.1838289

View : 91 | Download : 339

Publication Date : 2025-12-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Contemporary democratic theory frequently celebrates citizen participation as an ideal in which individuals are expected to be increasingly involved in decision-making processes at all levels. However, this article argues that the quantitative expansion of participatory calls does not necessarily enhance democratic legitimacy; on the contrary, it may in certain contexts generate political and administrative exhaustion among individuals. In this regard, the study introduces the concept of civic fatigue into the literature. Civic fatigue refers to a condition of political exhaustion that emerges when citizens are repeatedly invited to express opinions, provide feedback, or participate in decision-making processes that ultimately remain devoid of substantive content and fail to produce meaningful outcomes. Drawing on a critical theoretical framework—including Habermas’s deliberative democracy ideal, Gramsci’s conception of hegemony, Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic violence, and Byung-Chul Han’s critique of the neoliberal subject—the article examines the causes and consequences of civic fatigue. Employing a conceptual analysis methodology, the study substantiates the phenomenon through illustrative case examples from diverse contexts such as municipalities, digital participation platforms, social media activism, academia, and public institutions. The findings demonstrate that in environments where participation becomes instrumentalized and stripped of meaning, citizens gradually become more passive and their trust in democratic processes erodes. The primary contribution of the article is to challenge the widely held assumption in democratic theory that “more participation equals greater legitimacy,” and to foreground the qualitative dimensions of participation by bringing attention to civic fatigue as an invisible crisis of contemporary democracies.
Keywords : Kamusal yorgunluk, Simgesel şiddet, Siyasal tükenmişlik, Eleştirel demokrasi, Yönetişim

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