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Political Theory

March 17, 2022

🦋 Democracy is under threat, and we must use theory to save it

Simone Chambers This is not the time for collecting butterflies, writes Simone Chambers in response to Jean-Paul Gagnon. The threats to democracy we face today call for innovation and engagement, not typologies and definitions Read more
March 1, 2022

🦋 Democracy by any other name

Kathleen McCrudden Illert Jean-Paul Gagnon has argued that the most promising way of approaching the total texture of democracy is through words. But, asks Kathleen McCrudden Illert, what’s in a name? Many theories that we would recognise today as democratic were not, due to their historical context, associated with the signifier ‘democracy’ – and these concepts will be missing from Gagnon’s data mountain. Read more
February 25, 2022

The benefits and risks for the EU of ‘differentiated integration’

Sandra Kröger Using an expert survey, Sandra Kröger and Thomas Loughran assess the benefits and risks for the EU of ‘differentiated integration’ – where countries do not participate in specific policy areas or proceed at different speeds of integration. Their findings reveal mixed support for the process with some notable differences of opinion. Read more
February 16, 2022

Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent democratic theory

Ramin Jahanbegloo Ramin Jahanbegloo explores how Mahatma Gandhi’s non-western democratic theory prescribes empathetic emancipation through nonviolent action. Gandhi sought to bring about a truly democratic transformation of society, thereby securing an ethical social order 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
January 14, 2022

🦋 Untangling description, deception and denunciation: a linguistic twist to the Science of Democracy

Rikki Dean Jean-Paul Gagnon has amassed over 4,000 ‘linguistic artefacts’ into a data mountain of descriptions of democracy. Yet, notes Rikki Dean, a sustained consideration of these linguistic artefacts as language is missing from his Science of Democracy and its responses. Words do not only describe, they also deceive and denounce Read more
January 11, 2022

The pandemic reveals a lot about sovereign power and how it is contested

Ruairidh Brown Sovereignty is typically perceived to lie with those who can provide protection. Ruairidh Brown considers how the pandemic has tested and challenged the supra-national, national and sub-national levels in terms of the exercise of sovereign power. What might be the implications of these developments in the future? Read more
January 10, 2022

🦋 A specimen drawer to capture the evolution of democracy

Ernesto Cruz Ruiz Ernesto Cruz Ruiz argues that a Jean-Paul Gagnon’s democracy ‘data mountain’ will be of limited value if democracy is not also understood as a living entity which has evolved over time according to the impact of different environmental factors. To do this, he proposes a 'specimen drawer’ Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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