Alberto Bitonti
Lobbying regulation is an area where political scientists can help strengthen democracy. We usually analyse the effects of existing regulations, and see why, where, and how they are implemented. But Alberto Bitonti argues we can do much more, helping regulators fix loopholes and understand what they really should aim for Read more
Anne Nygaard Jedzini
The threat of sanctions or coercive power is key to how governments make public good outcomes. To increase the legitimacy of coercive power and address illegitimate forms of power such as control and corruption, Anne Nygaard Jedzini argues that politicians need to share power with citizens through deliberation Read more
Adrian Bua
Adrian Bua argues that a critical democratic realism, grounding democratisation efforts upon critique of the capitalist social order, is the best way to navigate Jean-Paul Gagnon's ‘data mountain’ – and put it to work for democracy 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
Friderike Spang
When we compromise on moral questions, it is important that compromises are fair. But how can we ensure the fairness of a compromise? We often see compromise as a result of negotiation and bargaining. However, to achieve a fair compromise, we need to deliberate, rather than negotiate, argues Friderike Spang 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
Anna Drake
How should we approach a database of democracy’s words when many of these collected democracies fail to respect people’s moral and political equality? According to Anna Drake, if we want meaningful narratives to emerge, then we must confront foundational challenges to democracy and centre these in our analysis. Read more
Christoph Deppe
Disinformation affects democratic systems and lowers the deliberative quality of our society. Analysing press coverage of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, Christoph Deppe and Gary S. Schaal reveal that Russia Today journalists instrumentalise democratic institutions – including German government press conferences – in their favour Read more
