Co-hosted with Integral Politics Switzerland and Integral Politics International

Integral political philosophy - Understanding the current crisis of legitimacy in liberal democracies

In this salon, Dr. Jim Cowan (UK) will present his new book project (in preparation), featuring an integral political philosophy.

Together with his co-author Tom Meek, they are offering considerations on about understanding the current crisis of legitimacy in liberal democracies, based on their current state of writing, as well as their understanding of politics in the UK.

They write: "We do not think liberal democracy is the end of the history of how we human beings continued to learn how to govern ourselves, our societies and our environment. We know what lies of the other side of dictatorship: totalitarianism. We don’t yet know what lies on the other side of liberal democracy: could it be democracy in which integral plays a leading role? While acknowledging the monumental achievements of liberal democracy in human history, we think a bolder strategy is called for than just patching up the liberal democratic framework: one of aiming for what lies on the other side of liberal democracy.
While our focus is on the UK we feel there will be an international audience in liberal democracies who will be able to translate what we are saying into their own country contexts.”

After studying politics and philosophy, Dr Jim Cowan moved into social action and community development, which taught him “how the UK actually works”. He later added 5 social science degrees alongside his career in social work, as well as a PhD reflecting his experiences of how people in communities and organisations use language to shape what gets done. In his retirement he discovered integral and wrote the book “The Britain Potential” (2019) to explain why the UK is lacking far behind its potential.