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democratic theory

February 2, 2022

State-building prior to democratisation does not enhance economic development

Haakon Gjerløw In a new book, Haakon Gjerløw, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Tore Wig and Matthew C. Wilson challenge conventional wisdom. Building state institutions before democratisation does not help long-term economic development, after all 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 24, 2022

🦋 Selection: the key to studying democracy and innovation

Frank Hendriks Jean-Paul Gagnon takes biology as a model but overlooks that it is driven by variation as well as selection. The study of it, therefore, is sensitive to both. The study of democracy and innovation must be too, asserts Frank Hendriks Read more
January 19, 2022

🦋 To defend democracy, understand it

Benjamin Abrams Democracy is in danger, and autocrats are becoming bolder and bolder. Benjamin Abrams argues that our failure to understand democracy stops us from effectively defending it. To protect democracy, we need to understand what it means, what kind we have, and what it can become 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 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
January 5, 2022

🦋 Is Chinese democracy democracy?

Sor-hoon Tan Sor-hoon Tan explores the challenge that ‘Chinese democracy’ represents for Jean-Paul Gagnon’s democracy ‘data mountain’ project. She argues that exploring the Chinese case helps us establish the wide-ranging parameters to the project. It also identifies the theoretical issues we must confront for the project to succeed Read more
December 20, 2021

🦋 The perpetual reinvention of democracy

Kyong-Min Son Jean-Paul Gagnon’s proposal to study democracy as a stable object obscures one of the most important aspects of democracy: its normative character. Kyong-Min Son argues that democracy’s ‘spirit’ animates its perpetual reinvention in defiance of all empirical forms Read more

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