Overcoming Political Apathy through Recognition as Co-Deciders via Alternative Forms of Participation

Analyses of recent developments of the developments in representative democracies as well as different civil society movements (e.g. les gillets jaunes) have highlighted the extent to which citizens are feeling ignored, not ‘heard’ or ‘listened to’ by the political establishment that is supposed to represent them. At the same time, there is increasing political apathy which shows itself in declining levels of participation in general elections and, equally important, increasing dissatisfaction with the means available for participation (Bertelsmann Foundation, 2014). Indeed, electing representatives every few years does not allow for meaningful participation in the decision-making processes in-between elections. Moreover, this also raises the question about the extent to which the ‘special agency relationship’ between citizens and institutions still holds and thus the extent to which a government’s decisions are democratically legitimate (cf. Beerbohm, 2012). The thesis that this paper sets out with is that citizens in contemporary representative democracies have been alienated by having been reduced to the status of ‘voters’ and are no longer ‘co-deciders’, they are no longer ‘full citizens’. In other words, a ‘citizen’ is understood to just participate in General Elections in order to ‘legitimate’ governments but to otherwise stay out of politics. This emptying of the notion of citizenship has a number of causes (increasing bureaucratisation of politics, over-demandingness of other aspects of individuals’ lives etc.). Most importantly however, so my argument, is that citizens are not recognised as co-deciders by political institutions. In this paper, I suggest that new forms of participation can serves as means to overcome this weakness and to realise an ideal full citizenship (i.e. citizens as co-deciders). I analyse different alternative voting mechanisms and the impact they can have on ‘making’ citizens co-deciders. The underlying idea here is based on a recognition theoretical approach and the constitutive nature of recognition (cf. Honneth, 1995). More specifically, the dimensions along which these tools and questions are evaluated, are a) the democratic values that the tool (platform) can enable (such as transparency, deliberative qualities, educative qualities and accessible decision-making procedures) and whether the tool (platform) can have the constitutive impact such that individuals ‘become’ and self-understand themselves as full citizens. It is argued that the provision of these alternative voting platforms can function as a form of recognition of citizens as co-deciders by institutions. Not only does this conclusion provide the basis for a new understanding of citizenship (as co-deciders) but in suggesting what recognition between citizens and institutions would be, this paper also establishes novel arguments for more direct forms of participation and the narrowing of the gap between citizens and institutions which can lead to overcoming political apathy.