Examining the first 99 entries in our Science of Democracy series, Alex Prior identifies an asymmetry between references to people (demos) and power (kratos). Through a discussion of this asymmetry and its possible causes, he calls for increased attention to power, in the sense of its ability to effect change
Memory is crucial for democracy, but not only because it can teach citizens important norms like tolerance and inclusion. Mnemonic democracy would also mean taking into account whether the views of the majority are represented and public memory is underpinned by legitimate state power, Jenny Wüstenberg writes
Herman Melville’s 'ruthless democracy' is a creative performance, argues Jennifer Greiman, which guides Melville’s experimental prose and poetry. This sought to reimagine democratic relations, possibilities, and ways of being as matters for aesthetic thought and work – with strong implications for political theory
The most important thing for democracy is to establish a catalogue of its constant, repeatable and inalienable features – the so-called DNA of democracy. Such a DNA code could no longer be manipulated or diluted, because nothing without it could be called democracy, writes Janusz Ruszkowski
Democracy as a basic structure in organisational life is a given in most Western NGOs. However, church doctrine challenges the Montesquieuan principle that the body of the people possess the supreme power. Still, with reference to the Norwegian case, Helge Nylenna argues that, like other NGOs, churches can be democratic
The Loop's thriving series thread on democratic theory has just published its 100th instalment. At this landmark juncture, Managing Editor Kate Hawkins looks back on the series' inception and development — and wonders where it might go in the future
In crisis. Regressing. Dying. Such unsettling assessments of democracy’s current state have sparked renewed interest in militant democracy – the justifiable repression of anti-democrats. Given the idea’s troubled history, Patrick Nitzscner welcomes attempts to place militant interventions on a securely democratic footing, but remains sceptical of their likely success
Kathryn Hicks and Sharon Stanley argue that the contemporary moral panic around obesity emerges from and exacerbates neoliberal tendencies that diminish democratic institutions and imaginaries. Given historical associations between race, gender and fatness, the ostensibly neutral language of health deepens existing lines of democratic exclusion
Nick Vlahos argues that to fully animate the data mountain that Jean-Paul Gagnon has amassed about the plurality and interrelation of democratic adjectives and forms, we must capture the way in which these variegated types of democracy enclose and open how the public can collectively govern
Bhimrao Ambedkar was many things, and is often known as a political activist and an anti-caste thinker. In addition, Scott R. Stroud positions Ambedkar as a theorist of democracy who extends the pragmatist tradition
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