This review essay critically discusses Robert Talisse’s account of democracy and polarization. I argue that Talisse overstates the degree to which polarization arises from the good-faith practice of democratic citizenship and downplays the extent to which polarization is caused by elites and exacerbated by social structures; this leads Talisse to overlook structural approaches to managing polarization and leaves his account of how citizens should respond to polarization incomplete. I conclude that Talisse’s insights should nevertheless be integrated into a broader agenda for thinking about the causes and solutions to polarization.

中文翻译：

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民主公民和两极分化：罗伯特·塔利斯的民主理论

这篇评论文章批判性地讨论了罗伯特·塔利斯对民主和两极分化的描述。我认为，Talisse 夸大了两极分化源于民主公民的善意实践的程度，而淡化了两极分化由精英引起并因社会结构加剧的程度；这导致 Talisse 忽视了管理两极分化的结构性方法，并使得他对公民应如何应对两极分化的描述不完整。我的结论是，Talisse 的见解应该被整合到一个更广泛的议程中，以思考两极分化的原因和解决方案。