In person icon Inclusive and Participatory Democracy: A Conceptual History Approach

Abstract

Inclusive and participatory democracy has become a desired norm in contemporary liberal politics. The convergence of these two dimensions underlines the relevance socio-political foundations of the democratic social contract. Practices and applications of accountability and oversight, transparency and trust, or responsibility and legitimacy are the backbone of this normative order. Yet, these elements often become disfigured and entangled, entering a de-meaning process that empties the social contract of any theoretical substance and, with it, shapes the scope of possibilities for democratic action. The panel has the goal of addressing the problems of contemporary democracy through the lens of political historiography, following the conceptual (re-)formation processes that have come to determine the current characteristics of the liberal tradition of politics (and economics, for instance). To that end, the panel focuses on conceptual history as a mode of exploration, in order to offer insights into the evolutionary moments and conditions that have moulded the current (neo-)liberal narratives of democracy and the underpinning social contract. Yet, more than an exploratory perspective, the panel seeks to bring to the fore analytically diverse approaches that take conceptual “revision, redefinition and reapplication” as their core problematic, offering an empirical or theoretical framing that challenges “the essentialist view and the need for fixed definitions”. The conceptual history approach presents a disciplinary interplay that contributes to a substantive conversation of political, historical, and critical perspectives. Thus, contributions exploring the conceptual underpinnings of inclusive and participatory democracy from comparative, legal, economic, or critical studies perspectives, amongst others, are welcome.

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