Deepening Democratic Innovations

Abstract

Democracy is an ideal to which many aspire, its crisis has been repeatedly pointed out by scholars and the general public (citizens’ disaffection towards political parties and democratic institutions, spread of populist parties, short-sighted political decisions). One of the critiques usually addressed to democratic systems is their inability to deal with those complex global challenges (e.g. climate change, tax evasion, migration, urban development) that our polities are currently facing. To overcome this structural democratic problem technocratic alternatives have been advocated, even if they entail to reduce the control that citizens have on their governments. This panel challenges these conclusions by pointing out that to properly address those complex global challenges we need to deepen, not rule out, our democratic systems so as to ensure that good political decisions are made but citizens exercise their control and agency. To support this perspective the papers of this panel develop democratic innovations (deliberative global citizens alternative, digital democracy, citizens tax juries) that address climate change, global tax reform, health care reform, and other global challenges by empowering citizens rather than limiting their control. The papers show that democracy is an open-ended ideal that can, and need to, change to deal with our current challenges without yet losing its soul, the control and power exercised by a community of equals.

Title	Details
Saving Parties from Money	View Paper Details
Citizen Tax Juries: Democratizing Tax Enforcement After the Panama Papers	View Paper Details
Defending Democracy Politically	View Paper Details
A Deliberative Global Citizens’ Assembly in Global Climate Governance: Exploring Legitimate Linkages to the UNFCCC-Process	View Paper Details