Caring for Democracy: Feminist Ethics and Radical Democratic Spaces

Radical theories of democracy challenge us to consider the significance of various social conditions and practices that affect people’s possibilities to engage with social injustices. However, they still tend to obscure how political spaces are possible in the first place. How are, for instance, spaces of deliberation or agonistic contestation created and sustained over time? How do people enter them and become recognized as participants? Building on works of feminist care ethics, this paper suggests ‘caring for democracy’ as a distinct democratic practice alongside more widely recognized practices, such as engaging in public deliberation or disruptive protests. It includes acts that help maintain a shared space—both physical and social aspects of its construction—and involves caring for everyone’s equal possibilities to participate in and reconstitute the space to reflect their needs and desires. Based on the recognition of difference, caring for democracy includes addressing material inequalities and power relations, checking in with others, and making space for them to express their views. The paper specifies the relationship between care and other democratic practices and addresses what caring for democracy should mean in an unjust world where uncaring and undemocratic actions undermine democratic spaces.