Paul Emiljanowicz
Paul Emiljanowicz manages Participedia, the largest database documenting democratic innovations from around the world. To prevent reproducing coloniality, Paul writes, we must commit to expanding our knowledge about democracy and recognising the experiences and knowledges of all peoples Read more
Brigitte Geißel
Most people agree that citizens are the sovereign in a democracy, but this principle is amazingly neglected when it comes to the design of democracy. Brigitte Geißel advocates for a new approach. Democracy means self-governing, so citizens should decide how to govern themselves Read more
Anna Drake
How should we approach a database of democracy’s words when many of these collected democracies fail to respect people’s moral and political equality? According to Anna Drake, if we want meaningful narratives to emerge, then we must confront foundational challenges to democracy and centre these in our analysis. Read more
Lucy J Parry
Lucy J Parry recognises the value of a database of democracy but is concerned about its utility in the real world. If this data mountain is to bolster democratic innovation, we need to step away from detached order and engage with the messy reality of democratic innovations in practice Read more
Toralf Stark
Toralf Stark, Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann and Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach elaborate on their proposal for a global concept of democracy. To do so, they move away from the institutional perspective to identify a normative good of democracy, which they refer to as the singular core principle – political self-efficacy. Read more
Erica Dorn
Democracy today is a colonial artefact tied to violent borders. Moreover, it produces an increasing number of non-citizens, unable to participate in democracy where they live. Erica Dorn and Federico Vaz argue that Gagnon's courageous enquiry into defining the historical landscape of democracy can bring more equity to its current – unjust – paradigm Read more
Ramon van der Does
Jean-Paul Gagnon views the construction of a taxonomy of democracy as a key way to address challenges to democracy. Yet, argues Ramon van der Does, such fundamental research is a luxury we cannot afford if we seek to be effective in bringing power to the people. Read more
Andreas Avgousti
Andreas Avgousti asserts that collecting democracy’s words gives us a window into the democratic imagination. He reads Jean-Paul Gagnon’s expanding database as an illustration of democratic virtues Read more
