Books & ideas

Where can Democracies Deliberate?

Pierre-Étienne Vandamme — 2024-01-25T08:51:00Z

How can the ideal of deliberative democracy be put into practice? A collective work analyses the “deliberative turn” in theories of democracy and outlines pathways for how deliberation could be implemented in mass democracies where public opinion continues to be shaped by the media and political parties.

Democratic environments

Maxime Gaborit — 2023-12-14T08:30:00Z

How do environmental concerns affect forms of democratic participation? Comparing a deliberative process in Poitou to citizens' mobilization in Ardèche, an ethnographic study examines how citizens engage in politics and conflict.

Thinking in Common

Justine Lacroix — 2021-07-05T07:00:00Z

Is the project of deliberative democracy unrealistic? Against the cynical assimilation of democracy to a set of voting procedures aimed at satisfying the interests of the greatest number, Charles Girard argues that deliberation is a relevant ideal for a society of equals.

A Self-Subversive Temperament

Cyrille Ferraton & Ludovic Frobert — 2014-07-23T07:30:00Z

One of Albert O. Hirschman's contributions to economic theory is a richer understanding of the concept of the “rational actor,” which, he demonstrated, possesses the deliberative capacities that democratic market societies require. This following is a profile of an economist who was also a dissident and an activist.

The Wisdom of Crowds

Juliette Roussin — 2014-02-20T08:30:00Z

Are we better able to make decisions and to produce knowledge as a group? Do the many have virtues that elude the individual? In this volume, the authors attempt to provide a collective answer to this question, thus laying the foundations for a theory of collective wisdom.

Could Random Selection and Deliberative Democracy Revitalize Politics in the 21st Century?

Yves Sintomer — 2012-06-06T06:59:27Z

The practice of using representative samples in decision making in contemporary political regimes creates an opening for re-establishing sortition (making decisions or filling offices by drawing lots). The diversity that sortition adds to political procedures helps reinforce democratic legitimacy. In Yves Sintomer's view, we could even introduce sortition into elections.

Reconstructing Citizenship for the Twenty-first Century

Thomas Grillot & Jean-Claude Monod — 2012-03-05T07:35:19Z

A world-famous legal scholar, Bruce Ackerman wants to reinvigorate citizenship in today's democracies. Here, he reexamines the intellectual foundations of his work, and some of the pragmatic applications he designed with others. His principle is to always consider how the state intervenes in the autobiography of every man.

Are we Represented?

Émilie Frenkiel & Ivan Jablonka — 2012-01-06T08:00:00Z

The indignados movement signals people's current dissatisfaction as regards political representation. Though pessimistic as to the political outlets of that mobilization, French political scientist Loïc Blondiaux calls for a democratization of democracy and offers to combine experimental democratic forms to complement elections.