Course: JPM805 Democracy in the Age of Crises - Current Challenges and Innovations
Overview:
This course addresses the challenges of liberal democracy in the age of crises and opportunities arising from democratic innovations to overcome these challenges. Democracy faces multiple and simultaneous crises – environmental and health crises being the most dominant ones at present. Democratic innovations empower citizens to express their preferences directly without the mediation of political parties and elected politicians. However, the concrete capacity of democratic innovation to present itself as a possible alternative to representative democracy must be further developed. This course is organized into four interconnected thematic blocks. This course will first address the current challenges of liberal democracy – the environmental crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, we will address the theoretical questions behind the design of democratic innovations and the methods of investigating them. Third, we will discuss case studies of key democratic innovations (mini-publics, participatory budgeting, constitutional assembly, recall, citizen juries). Fourth, we will focus on key issues pertaining to the assessment and effectiveness of democratic innovation.
Overview:
This course addresses the challenges of liberal democracy in the age of crises and opportunities arising from democratic innovations to overcome these challenges. Democracy faces multiple and simultaneous crises – environmental and health crises being the most dominant ones at present. Democratic innovations empower citizens to express their preferences directly without the mediation of political parties and elected politicians. However, the concrete capacity of democratic innovation to present itself as a possible alternative to representative democracy must be further developed. This course is organized into four interconnected thematic blocks. This course will first address the current challenges of liberal democracy – the environmental crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, we will address the theoretical questions behind the design of democratic innovations and the methods of investigating them. Third, we will discuss case studies of key democratic innovations (mini-publics, participatory budgeting, constitutional assembly, recall, citizen juries). Fourth, we will focus on key issues pertaining to the assessment and effectiveness of democratic innovation.
- Teacher: Petra Guasti