Abstract:

Democracy is a political ideal and governance path commonly pursued by humanity, and also a vital symbol of political modernization. In the 21st century, the liberal democratic system centered on competitive elections has increasingly revealed problems such as simplification, populism, oligarchization, polarization, and inefficiency. It faces increasingly evident structural difficulties in public opinion absorption, social integration, and effective governance. Against this backdrop, re-examining the essence of democracy and exploring more rational democratic institutions has become an important task for contemporary democratic theorists. Based on this, this paper adopts the evolutionary logic of democracy constantly responding to real-world challenges and achieving institutional leaps through crises as its analytical framework. On the basis of examining the two historical leaps of democracy in the past and their contemporary crises, it explores the possible direction for a third leap in democracy.

Key words: democratic leap, contemporary democratic crisis, Marxist view of democracy, Chinese democratic politics