ABSTRACT
Late in 2013, a debate over the continued relevance of democratic participation emerged between two prominent British comedians. During his world tour for The Messiah Complex, Russell Brand (2013) had guest-edited an edition of the Labour-orientated magazine the New Statesman, in which he argued that young people and the disenfranchised should eschew voting and withdraw from democratic participation rather than offering their “tacit compliance.” Young people, Brand asserted, are right to feel apathetic and powerless when the democratic system of governance offers no effective choice. Moreover, Brand highlighted the multitude of symptoms of the democratic-capitalist order, from global inequality to climate change and the influence of financial capital.
