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Democratic Innovations

June 9, 2022

🦋 The best use of our limited resources in service of democracy?

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
May 18, 2022

🦋 Reimagining democracy, one word at a time

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
March 21, 2022

🦋 Mountains of data need a (democratic) horizon

Rafael Khachaturian According to Rafael Khachaturian, Jean-Paul Gagnon’s 'lexical approach' misses the interpretive dimension of democracy. Instead, we need a self-reflexive theory of concept creation that treats democracy as an unfulfilled political project Read more
February 9, 2022

Can citizens’ assemblies save our ailing democracies?

Colm Walsh Experimentation with citizens' assemblies is flourishing throughout the world. Using Ireland as a case study, Colm D. Walsh finds that, while these assemblies offer democracy great promise and have strong citizen support, ensuring equal participation in them remains a challenge Read more
January 29, 2022

🦋 A rigorous debate on intra-disciplinary boundaries and democracy

Gergana Dimova In the 🦋 Science of Democracy series, Jean-Paul Gagnon has started an intra-disciplinary debate between democratic theory and comparative politics. The reasons to overcome this disciplinary clash are better than the reasons to embrace it, writes Gergana Dimova Read more
December 7, 2021

The EU's democratic problem – and what can be done about it

Christine Neuhold Does the European Union have a democratic problem? Here, Christine Neuhold summarises a lively debate that aims to tackle this question. The EU’s democratic deficit dominates discussion, but citizen participation is now being trialled through the innovative Conference on the Future of Europe Read more
July 23, 2021

🦋 If democracy is hard to love, how can we teach it?

Kei Nishiyama Teaching democracy is hard work, precisely because we are living in a time when democracy is in crisis. So what should we teach, and how? Kei Nishiyama suggests that a grassroots, bottom-up approach involving teachers and learners alike will help us gain ownership of democracy – and fall back in love with it Read more
July 13, 2021

🦋 Rescuing an abandoned science: the lexicon of democracy

Jean-Paul Gagnon For centuries democracy has had many meanings. But they have not been collected and studied as a whole. This leaves us, Jean-Paul Gagnon argues, with only a partial knowledge of democracy. It's one that limits our options for democratisation in an increasingly authoritarian world Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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