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Democracy

December 15, 2022

♟️ Varieties of constitutional models and authoritarian political order

Julian G. Waller The lure of typology is irresistible for social scientists, yet commonly used schemas classifying authoritarian politics still miss key variation. Our frameworks often rely on organisational assumptions set one level of abstraction too high. Julian G. Waller demonstrates how a closer look at constitutional structure can confront this problem Read more
December 2, 2022

🦋 The need for critical democratic realism

Adrian Bua Adrian Bua argues that a critical democratic realism, grounding democratisation efforts upon critique of the capitalist social order, is the best way to navigate Jean-Paul Gagnon's ‘data mountain’ – and put it to work for democracy Read more
December 2, 2022

🦋 ‘Sporting Democracy’ – as illustrated by the Qatar World Cup

Thomas Bunting Inspired by Jean-Paul Gagnon’s call to build a data mountain on different democratic forms, Thomas Bunting emphasises the need to theorise sport as a crucial space for democratic spectatorship and action. He uses the Qatar World Cup as an example of how major sporting events can generate democratic insights and protest Read more
November 30, 2022

Tokayev consolidates power in Kazakhstan elections

Bakhytzhan Kurmanov In Kazakhstan’s recent presidential elections, incumbent President Tokayev won an overwhelming majority, further consolidating his rule. Tokayev preaches democratisation. Yet, as Bakhytzhan Kurmanov argues, the elections were hardly democratic, and the reforms he proposes may mask an intent to strengthen his own position rather than empower Kazakh citizens Read more
November 24, 2022

🦋 Democracy requires description, not explanation

Hojjatollah Sadeqi Hojjatollah Sadeqi reads Jean-Paul Gagnon’s 'definitions of democracy' project through Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophical methods. The result? Gagnon has, by necessity, placed us in a dark and complex city of 'democracy'. The only way to understand this city is to do all we can to describe it Read more
November 18, 2022

Citizen assemblies must report on expert diversity and inclusion

Jen Roberts Deliberative approaches like citizen assemblies are gaining traction, particularly to inform climate policy. To ensure the legitimacy of these processes, Jen Roberts and her team argue that the process of selecting experts involved in citizen deliberations should be transparent, and must consider diversity and inclusivity Read more
November 17, 2022

📐Turkey shows us why it's hard to resist human rights violations through the courts

Gabriela Patricia García García Human rights organisations in Turkey face a predicament. In using the law to confront human rights violations by the government, they then experience those violations themselves. Legal mobilisation against democratic backsliding has its limits, argues Gabriela García García Read more
November 16, 2022

🦋 Democracy as a problem

Michael Hanchard Michael Hanchard argues that there is no singular scientific method that is the property of democracy. Instead, we should, as WEB Dubois suggests, treat democracy as a problem replete with many possibilities for expansion and contraction, regardless of its normative and conceptual status as an aspiration and ideal type Read more

The Loop

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Advancing Political Science
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