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Democratic Innovations

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

June 11, 2021

Polling booth, postal ballot or internet? The voting-mode preferences of Americans

Carolina Plescia Interest in postal voting has increased during the pandemic as a means to avoid in-person contact. But exactly who is choosing to vote by mail? Carolina Plescia, Semra Sevi and André Blais find that the biggest cleavage in US citizen preferences about how to vote is generational, not ideological Read more

June 1, 2021

How minipublics can help democracy – even if the wider public can’t take part

Lisa Van Dijk In representative democracies, many citizens feel disconnected from those who make political decisions on their behalf. In extreme cases, they may even refuse to accept democratic decisions and contemplate alternative forms of government. Lisa van Dijk, James Pow and Sofie Marien test the effectiveness of ‘minipublics’ to offset these problems Read more

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