Democracy as Lived Experience: A Phenomenological Perspective (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

With this book, Morris Bosin offers a phenomenological approach to understanding democracy, not as a static system of institutions, but as a lived experience shaped by perception, participation, and meaning making.In an era marked by polarization, civic disengagement, and algorithmic influence over public discourse, this perspective provides a fresh lens for exploring how individuals and communities experience democratic life.Rather than focusing solely on laws and procedures, the book examines how citizens feel freedom, legitimacy, and collective will in everyday contexts and how alienation from these experiences fuels disaffection. Drawing on continental philosophy, Bosin engages thinkers such as Levinas, Merleau-Ponty, Husserl, and Arendt to illuminate the existential dimensions of democratic theory.He argues that repairing democracy requires more than institutional reform; it demands attention to how democracy is lived.Through narrative, case studies, and conceptual analysis, Bosin