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Democracy

December 8, 2021

🦋 Data mountains and usable concepts: a lesson from Francis Bacon

Sandra Leonie Field Scholars of democracy must look beyond received paradigms. With his democracy 'data mountain', Jean-Paul Gagnon is challenging us to do so. However, drawing on Francis Bacon's analogous project for natural science, Sandra Leonie Field wonders whether a database of adjectives is indeed the best method of reaching this goal 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
December 2, 2021

The media chooses who has won (and lost) an election – and it's not just based on objective electoral performance

Katjana Gattermann Media reports on elections often refer to the 'winners' and 'losers'. Yet, especially in multi-party systems, there is often more than one way to interpret election results. How the media frames election results does not depend only on parties’ objective performance, write Katjana Gattermann, Thomas M. Meyer and Katharina Wurzer. It also depends on also on party ideology Read more
November 29, 2021

Sudan’s army is at a stalemate, and the costs are mounting

Hager Ali A military coup on 25 October put an abrupt end to Sudan’s fragile democratic transition. Hager Ali argues that although the coup pre-empted a foreseeable power-transfer, the military also created a much bigger problem for itself. The same socio-political conditions that kept al-Bashir in power for decades now threaten the military’s capacity to govern Read more
November 29, 2021

🦋 To understand democracy we need democratic theory

Tom Theuns Tom Theuns argues Jean-Paul Gagnon’s ‘data mountain’ project cannot achieve its goals because of fundamental problems of over-inclusion and under-inclusion, problems that can only be solved by recourse to democratic theory. But that is not to say that the project is without value Read more
November 25, 2021

🦋 On different ways to intend democracy, and to study it

Andrea Felicetti Andrea Felicetti writes that Gagnon’s data mountain is not a guarantee against biases and partiality. In addition to words, we must pay attention to people, their customs and practices, to better grasp what democracy entails Read more
November 19, 2021

🦋 Democracy: not just what but also why

Martyn Hammersley Martyn Hammersley argues that, since there is no essence of democracy, clarification is always required when this word is used. And any assumption that what it refers to is always desirable must be questioned: in each context, we should ask ‘Why democracy?’ as well as ‘What is democracy?’ Read more
November 16, 2021

Deliberating online in a crisis: yes we can (and why we should)

Rachel Thompson Can we trust the public to have constructive conversations to inform decision-making in a national crisis? Based on two online, public deliberation forums that they ran and analysed during lockdown, Rachel Thompson, Anna McKeon, Stephen Elstub and Oliver Escobar argue that public deliberation should be a critical element in any crisis response Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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