When politicians fail: zombie democracy and the anthropology of actually existing politics

While modernist narratives of voter apathy tend to take the individual as their point of departure, recent work in the sociology of care and the anthropology of class has identified alternative understandings of personhood. On a post-industrial English council estate, residents think of politicians as the antithesis of ordinary sociality from whom withdrawal becomes a socially expected response. This is because politicians lack the requisite attributes that make a locally valued person, including a commitment to a locality and its people. An ethnographic portrayal of “zombie democracy” identifies the crucial role played by values other than those of individualism in understanding popular withdrawal from politics. It further extends the call for an anthropology of actually existing politics by bringing an analysis of everyday processes of value accrual to bear on our understandings of formal politics and electoral processes.