Filosofie & Praktijk - Volume 45, Issue 3, 2024

The complexity of the principles of democratic socialism is even increasing when we want to sketch the outlines of its institutional proposals. We have to avoid rigid institutional blueprints and the risk of too little institutional concreteness, vagueness and ambiguities. We have to discuss institutional arrangements in relation to specific ensembles of economic relations. My presentation follows the logic of units (governance inside work organisations), sectors or ‘functional regulation’ (governance of industry/services, commerce, finance and of specific issues by non-state networks, associations and organizations) and territorial-political regulation on all levels. I conclude that the complexity of democratizing economy, society and polities on all levels and realizing ‘democratic socialism’ has been dramatically increased by recent poly-crises. Still associative democracy (AD) is not a completely crazy utopia and my hope is that this outline can serve to develop context-specific politics by a huge variety of actors, particularly also younger generations, even in our times.

A short commentary on both of Veit Bader’s articles. A central criticism is that his principles offer no guidance for distinguishing right from wrong forms of democratization. This does not mean that democratizing by way of involving people in important decisions is nonsense. But being aware that democracy is a source of emancipation but at the same time of resentment is essential.

The main theme of this paper is the problem of euthanasia in the case of dementia, which in the advanced stage of dementia means euthanasia in the case of mental incompetence. The debate clearly shows how dangerous the quicksand of waiting for the stage of advanced dementia, thanks to a written will, can be. And what does ‘self-determination’ stand for in this debate? Self-determination in this particular application, means: obtaining and/ or retaining control and authority in carefully deciding on, and preparing and processing, one’s own end of life. This self-determination diminishes, decreases, to the extent that such control and authority are relinquished. And this self-determination is not only a right and in some circumstances a duty as well, but can also sometimes be a burden. It is strong shoulders that can carry this burden.

Personal responsibility used to be something for which there was room in the thinking of christian-democrats, social-democrats, liberals and conservatives, even though they naturally placed different emphases. So what about that room today? Today there is a great reluctance to suggest personal responsibility in the case of unequal outcomes. No, we should not overreact and turn victims into perpetrators. And we should not replace the illusion that people can do nothing about their situation with the illusion that they can do everything about it. The injustice is not necessarily in the inequality itself, but in the fact that some people cannot possibly improve their position, even if they try.