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June 28, 2022

🦋 How to get to the core of democracy

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

June 23, 2022

'The people' goes to the Capitol

Lasse Thomassen How should we interpret what happened on 6 January 2021 at the Capitol? Lasse Thomassen argues that, while populists like Trump may threaten democracy, we cannot simply dismiss populism and the populist mob without taking something away from it that we value: its inherent openness Read more

June 22, 2022

Westminster has a moral obligation to allow a second Scottish independence referendum

Ruairidh Brown The first obstacle in holding an Independence Referendum is assuring its legitimacy. To do so, says Ruairidh Brown, the SNP-Green alliance have implied the UK Government has no moral authority to deny Scots a choice on their future Read more

June 21, 2022

Russia's failures in Ukraine could threaten its domestic stability

Alexandr Burilkov With the Russian invasion of Ukraine reduced to a protracted battle for the Donbas, discontent grows in Russian military and ultranationalist circles. This could lead to the formation of paramilitary groups aiming for a Russia of the revolutionary right, says Alexandr Burilkov Read more

June 20, 2022

🦋 The open texture of democracy

John Capps Democracy comes in lots of different flavours. How do we make sense of this? Is having all these meanings a feature or a bug? John Capps suggests that the idea of 'open texture' can help us better understand democratic theory and practice Read more

June 17, 2022

How the Coalition for Quebec's Future changed the game on Québécois nationalism

Adam Stokes Québécois politics has been undergoing a dramatic change since 2018. The emergence of the ‘Coalition for Quebec’s Future’ (CAQ) has smashed the existing Liberal/Parti Québécois duopoly in the province and sidelined the issue of Quebec’s sovereignty in favour of cultural issues, writes Adam Stokes Read more

June 16, 2022

🦋 Democracy: by design and on the move

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

June 15, 2022

The invasion of Ukraine is preventing a truce in the war on nature

Ian Budge The Russian invasion of Ukraine has reduced media coverage of the political violence and turmoil elsewhere in the world caused by climate change, as well as causing a retreat on climate change policy targets by richer democracies. Ian Budge highlights what needs to be done and how Read more

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