Uncivil Wars

How Contempt Is Corroding Democracy: Quarterly Essay 87

By: Waleed Aly, Scott Stephens

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Paperback | 5 September 2022 | Edition Number 87

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130 Pages

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24 x 17 x 0.5

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Why is public debate increasingly polarised - and what can we do about it?

Is our democracy corroding?

In this original, eloquent essay, Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens explore the ethics and politics of public debate – and the threats it now faces.

In a healthy democracy we need the capacity to disagree. Yet Aly and Stephens note a growing tendency to dismiss and exile opponents, to treat them with contempt. This toxic partisanship has been imported from the United States, where it has been corrosive – and a temptation for both left and right. Aly and Stephens analyse some telling examples and look back to heroes of democracy who found a better way forward.

This compelling essay draws on philosophy, literature and history to make an urgent case about the present.

About the Authors

Waleed Aly is a writer, academic, lawyer and broadcaster. He is a lecturer in politics at Monash University and co-host of Network Ten's The Project. He is the author of People Like Us and Quarterly Essay 37, What's Right?.

Scott Stephens is the ABC's Religion and Ethics online editor. He is widely published on moral philosophy and has edited volumes of the writings of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek and the Australian philosopher Raimond Gaita. With Waleed Aly, he co-hosts The Minefield on ABC Radio National.

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