Abstract

The idea of a democratic theory of governmental action is at the center of Pierre Rosanvallon's last book ("Le bon gouvernement"), where he focuses on the negative effects rising when citizens fail to assert their active citizenship through participation and influence on political decisions. According to Rosanvallon, this is what leads to an atrophied democracy, just the opposite of an «exercised democracy» based on the citizen involvement and able to get over the paralysis of its presidential decay.