Democracy and the Politics of Silence

<p>Most people equate democracy with discussion speech and making one's voice heard. But where does silence fit in? <em>Democracy and the Politics of Silence </em>investigates the largely overlooked role of silence in democratic politics. It challenges conventional wisdom by arguing that silence can support and affirm democratic pillars and outcomes like empowerment inclusion and equality.</p><p>The book focuses on a particular set of problems concerning the relationship between political silence and the democratic triad of voice agency and representation. Each of the book's chapters draws on a selection of hand-picked case studies both historical and contemporary including the NAACP's Silent Parade in 1917 demonstrations by the Women in Black Spain's post-Franco Pact of Forgetting Trump's silent majority debates related to the representation of nonhuman beings and the famous <em>Miranda</em> judgment on the right to silence. Together they offer an innovative ambitious investigation of democratically undesirable silences and practices of silence that are powerfully affirmative of democratic subjectivities aims and norms. In thus expanding the repertoire of democratic citizenship Mónica Brito Vieira invites readers to consider what silence might teach them about democracy.</p><p>This timely book should appeal to political science students and scholars as well as anyone interested in the history of democracies and popular resistance movements.</p>