Eva Fodor
Illiberal Hungary has become famous in recent years for paying families to have, or pledge to have, children. This, writes Eva Fodor, has transformed the criteria and practice for social citizenship and democratic participation Read more
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
Steffen Hurka
Why are laws often so hard to understand? Steffen Hurka argues that the complexity of laws increases when political conflict becomes more intense and when decision-making becomes more inclusive. Democracies aim for compromise and the balancing of interests, and complex laws are the inevitable consequence Read more
Brigitte Geißel
Most people agree that citizens are the sovereign in a democracy, but this principle is amazingly neglected when it comes to the design of democracy. Brigitte Geißel advocates for a new approach. Democracy means self-governing, so citizens should decide how to govern themselves Read more
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
Franziska Maier
Citizenship is a contested and multifaceted concept. Yet despite their differences, all German citizens see citizenship as something more than just a legal status. Franziska Maier finds that common to all German citizens is a desire for connectivity Read more
Ekaterina Rashkova
Millions of people no longer live in their countries of birth, and this can distort political representation, argues Ekaterina Rashkova-Gerbrands. If expats had been eligible to vote in recent Dutch parliamentary elections, we would have seen more support for innovative parties such as the D66 and Groen Links Read more
Lorenzo Piccoli
International travel restrictions introduced during the pandemic constrained our freedom to travel. To understand how, we must look at the interaction between immigration status, citizenship, employment, and place of residence, write Lorenzo Piccoli, Jelena Dzankic, Timothy Jacob-Owens and Didier Ruedin Read more
