Andreas Avgousti
Andreas Avgousti asserts that collecting democracy’s words gives us a window into the democratic imagination. He reads Jean-Paul Gagnon’s expanding database as an illustration of democratic virtues Read more
Leonardo Fiorespino
Leonardo Fiorespino finds Jean-Paul Gagnon’s proposed lexicon of democracy wanting in its base assumptions around knowledge and arbitrariness. Moreover, he wonders, can we really trust 'democracy's words'? Read more
Pablo Ouziel
Today, democratic imaginaries are diluted while parochial understandings of democracy are presented as universal. Such a state of affairs, argues Pablo Ouziel, calls for a deeply diverse speaking-with multilogue amongst democratic traditions Read more
Viktor Orri Valgarðsson
Viktor Valgarðsson argues that words are not enough to understand the concept of democracy. 'Democracy' denotes an important ideal that we must not sacrifice on a mountain of words. Read more
Friedel Marquardt
Jean-Paul Gagnon’s endeavour has great potential for bringing unknown or ignored definitions to the fore. However, Friedel Marquardt argues, we hinder understanding and cut its empowering potential short if the communities these definitions are about do not get a chance to speak about their democracies Read more
Ana Tereza Duarte Lima de Barros
Political terms such as communist, fascist, and populist have become so elastic that they end up losing their analytical precision and meaning, write Ana Tereza Duarte Lima de Barros and Jorge Henrique Oliveira Gomes. It is our responsibility to use them with accuracy Read more
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
The Loop
Cutting-edge analysis showcasing the work of the political science discipline at its best.