This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: When people think about democracy, they tend to think about national elections, parliaments or the policies of national governments. Even the recent special election in Holborn and St Pancras showed that democratic events are often framed around what they mean for the fortunes of national leaders, rather than what they mean for daily life within a community.
But this focus on the national level and on the procedures associated with democracy is shortsighted. Our work, bringing together political theory and local politics, is aimed at developing a deeper understanding of democracy. This is particularly important when democracies around the world are coming under threat from authoritarian leaders and insurgent populist movements.
We argue that politics at the local level, especially in cities, has a critical role to play in resisting authoritarianism. But what can cities do to promote democracy? Cities have long had a strong connection to democratic values.
The practices of self-governance in the city-states of ancient Greece or Renaissance Italy bore this out. Today, cities often provide a progressive counterweight to reactionary and authoritarian politics at the national level. In the U.S., for example, residents of Minneapolis rose up to resist deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
And in India, Gen Z "cockroach" protests centered on Delhi are challenging alleged electoral fraud and government corruption. But cities are not inherently democratic. Many elect authoritarian mayors who enact regressive policies targeting migrants or LGBTQ+ rights.
And urban politics often fails to live up to democratic ideals by sidelining the voices of citizens and exacerbating economic inequality or feelings of social exclusion. These dynamics can contribute to rising xenophobia and antidemocratic sentiment at the national level. So to understand why cities matter for democracy, it is important to look beyond the outcomes of elections or the agendas of individual mayors or civic movements.
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