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political theory

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
December 17, 2021

EU solidarity requires distribution of responsibilities

Aline Bartenstein Former Commission President Juncker proclaimed that 'solidarity is the glue that keeps our Union together'. But behind this general claim, the concept of solidarity remains nebulous. A federal perspective, argues Aline Bartenstein, helps us to understand the features of solidarity between member states, and why the counter-principle of subsidiarity is necessary Read more
December 16, 2021

🦋 Can you put food inside? Words are invitations, not containers

Christian Ewert Collecting democracy’s words is admirable, thinks Christian Ewert. Not because the collection will hold any meaning on its own, but because it invites us to share and learn Read more
December 13, 2021

🦋 How to measure democracy: A practitioner’s view

Alexander Hudson How we measure democracy matters, writes Alexander Hudson. For practitioners, measuring the component parts of democracy is just as important as using an integral concept of democracy Read more
December 8, 2021

🦋 Data mountains and usable concepts: a lesson from Francis Bacon

Sandra Leonie Field Scholars of democracy must look beyond received paradigms. With his democracy 'data mountain', Jean-Paul Gagnon is challenging us to do so. However, drawing on Francis Bacon's analogous project for natural science, Sandra Leonie Field wonders whether a database of adjectives is indeed the best method of reaching this goal Read more
November 29, 2021

🦋 To understand democracy we need democratic theory

Tom Theuns Tom Theuns argues Jean-Paul Gagnon’s ‘data mountain’ project cannot achieve its goals because of fundamental problems of over-inclusion and under-inclusion, problems that can only be solved by recourse to democratic theory. But that is not to say that the project is without value Read more

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