Astra Taylor

The spark for that project was my experience with Occupy Wall Street and at various protests over the years. One of the most common chants is the call and response “Show me what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like.” And in my head, every time I heard that chant, I would go, Is this what democracy looks like? You know, what the fuck is democracy? Is it an uprising? There was a tendency on the Left to associate democracy with spontaneous moments of people en masse in the street. And then, of course, there’s a liberal tradition that equates democracy with various democratic procedures, including free elections, as well as the rule of law and open markets.

When I embarked on my project, I was genuinely uncertain whether I would come out the other side and decide that we actually need a new concept — that democracy is just too tainted, or maybe too vague, or that it has too much baggage. But by the time I wrapped the film What Is Democracy? and the book, I felt very committed to democracy. I see its vagueness as a source of strength. It’s a concept that can shift and expand and evolve. Democracy, fundamentally, means the people holding power or ruling. Those two aspects — who qualifies as the people and how they rule — are both perpetually open to debate.