Constellations, vol. 14, no. 2 (June 2007), pp. 182-96.

At the slart of the twenty-first century, one hardly needs 10 be a political scientist to recognize that democratic institutions alone do not generate democracy. When political actors introduce 10 societies that have been governed non-democratically liberal democratic constitutions – even when these constitutions define broad and inclusive political and civil righti,, even when they establish legal frameworks for a parliamentary government and for free and fair elections – such institutional changes alone do not secure ~table and legitimate practices of democratic governance. Democracy requires, in addition to democratic institutions, democratic citizens. It requires, that is to say, citizens who regard one another as political equals, who are motivated to engage one another in collective deliberation, and who are willing to accept as legitimate the laws that democratic processes yield.