The Idea of 'Good-Enough' Citizen: Current Depictions of Citizens in the Discourses on Political Participation

Abstract

The widespread critique of contemporary democracies, diagnosed as a crisis of representative institutions, has fueled the confidence on citizens as the main agent for its renewal. Diverse so-called models of democracy include depictions of different types of citizens involved in distinct participative activities and devices. From the conscious monitorial citizen to the lay deliberative one, each of these perspectives tends to include a description of the citizen from which normative conclusions expressed in a discourse on citizen participation are drawn As Dahl (1992) pointed out, all views of democracy lay on a specific account of citizen competence. His was a so-considered realistic one, describing the “good-enough citizen” as having a minimal political competence (in between the classical vision of the good citizen and the contemporary narrow view of the active rational egoist). This competence can be improved through formal education, media information and party competition, but until a certain level. And this view determine the role attributed to citizen participation on democracies. The aim of this panel is to try to analyze the different pictures of citizens, and their corresponding typologies, sketched in present theories and discourses on citizen participation Both, empirical descriptions and normative approaches, are welcome.

Title	Details
The Promise of Grass Roots for New Dimensions of European Citizenship	View Paper Details
When Expertise Matters in Participatory Governance: How Technical Knowledge is Incorporated in Participatory Processes	View Paper Details
Typologies of Citizens in Current Discourses on Political Participation	View Paper Details