Brigitte Geissel
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 385351 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Brigitte Geissel |
| NOMBRES | Brigitte |
| APELLIDO | Geissel |
| FIRMA | GEISSEL B |
| AFILIACIONES | Goethe University Frankfurt |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1310-949X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 37 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 288 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 33 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 4 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2004 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Trajectories of democratic innovations in Germany – citizens’ opportunities on the move
This paper traces and assesses the trajectories of democratic innovations (DIs) in Germany across levels of governance and over time since 1990, providing novel and original data. We focus on three types of DIs that have been applied in Germany: direct democratic instruments, participatory budgeting, and deliberative mini-publics (DMPs). DIs proliferated differently across the different levels of governance (local, state, and federal), with shift…
Equality via bottom-up referendums? The role of initiators
Direct democratic instruments are discussed by politicians and academia as a means to bring citizens “back in” and thereby to increase support for democracy. Especially bottom-up referenda are expected to offer disadvantaged groups an opportunity to put their issues on the agenda. Yet, the question remains open whether they are really successful in this regard. Are disadvantaged groups able to pursue their interests via direct democratic instrume…
Limited Congruence
Both citizens and political parties refer to novel participatory practices in the contemporary crisis of representative democracy. Survey data indicate a growing demand for such practices within the electorate, while political parties have also begun discussing them more frequently. However, previous studies on citizens’ attitudes and parties’ discourse on democratic innovations rarely speak to each other. It remains unclear whether citizens’ att…
Direct democracy and equality
Direct democratic instruments are increasingly applied in many European countries. They are subject to an ongoing public—and often highly controversial—debate. The question of how direct democracy relates to equality, i.e. if direct democratic instruments have the potential to foster equality or if they lead to more inequality, is crucial in this debate. Research has struggled to come up with a general answer to this question with scholars assumi…
Citizen Deliberation in Germany
This article explores the capacity of randomly-selected, citizen deliberation procedures to deliver on their promise to generate inclusive and considered citizen judgements, connecting these to political authority and the broader public sphere. These 'mini-publics' are increasingly adopted in representative democratic systems. Germany is no exception and has been at the forefront of this trend. The article begins with a historical overview of cit…
Public Deliberation or Popular Votes? Measuring the Performance of Different Types of Participatory Democracy
There is a growing body of empirical research on democracies with strong or weak deliberative and/or direct democratic features. But how do these features affect the performance of a country? How do participatory types of democracies differ considering system performance, democratic performance, and social performance? Which type is more successful? Although these questions are most crucial and pressing in democracy research, they remain mostly u…
Direct democracy and equality
Direct democracy is seen as a potential cure to the malaise of representative democracy. It is increasingly used worldwide. However, research on the effects of direct democracy on important indicators like socio-economic, legal, and political equality is scarce, and mainly limited to Europe and the US. The global perspective is missing. This article starts to close this gap. It presents descriptive findings on direct democratic votes at the natio…
Do Denizens Represent Denizens? A Case of Foreigners’ Council in Frankfurt
This article fills a gap in existing research by focusing on the political representation of denizens—legal residents not holding citizenship of the country and thus generally excluded from legislative politics. The empirical research on the effects of the presence of under-represented groups in representative bodies indicates that “who represents” (descriptive) is as important as “what is being represented” (substantive). In this article, we ana…
Claims of Representation
This article seeks to build a bridge between the empirical scholarship rooted in the traditional theory of political representation and constructivist theory on representation by focusing on the authorization of claims. It seeks to answer how claims can be authorized beyond elections - selecting three democratic innovations and tracing claims through the claim-making process. Different participatory democratic innovations are selected - providing…
Support for direct and deliberative models of democracy in the UK
The models of direct and deliberative democracy are broadly considered the major alternatives to representative democracy. So far, the two models have been merged under the broad umbrella of participatory democracy and thus little is known about why citizens support direct democracy and/or deliberation. They are distinct procedures, driven by different logics and outcomes and this makes it likely that the preference for them rest on different pre…
It Depends…Different Direct Democratic Instruments and Equality in Europe from 1990 to 2015
Despite the popularity of direct democracy in recent decades, research on the actual output effects of popular decision-making is rare. This is especially true with regard to equality, where there are at least three major research gaps: 1) a lack of cross-national analyses; 2) insufficient investigation of the differential effects of different direct democratic instruments on equality; and 3) a failure to distinguish between different aspects of …
More or less equality? Direct democracy in Europe from 1990 to 2015
Systematizing Democratic Systems Approaches
The notion that democracy is a system is ever present in democratic theory. However, what it means to think systemically about democracy (as opposed to what it means for a political system to be democratic) is under-elaborated. This article sets out a meta-level framework for thinking systemically about democracy, built upon seven conceptual building blocks, which we term (1) functions, (2) norms, (3) practices, (4) actors, (5) arenas, (6) levels…
Saward’s Concept of the Representative Claim Revisited
Representation is a process of making, accepting, or rejecting representative claims (Disch, 2015; Saward, 2014). This groundbreaking insight challenged the standard assumption that representative democracy can be reduced to elections and activities of elected representatives (Pitkin, 1967). It broadened the scope of representative democracy to encompass representation activities beyond those authorized by elections, transformed our thinking and …
Rethinking Representation
The established notion of political representation is challenged on multiple accounts—theoretically, conceptually, and empirically. The contributions to this thematic issue explore the constructivist turn as the means for rethinking political representation today around the world. The articles included here seek to reconsider representation by theoretically and empirically reassessing how representation is conceptualized, claimed and performed—in…
An Alternative to Representation
Extensive scholarly attention is devoted to citizens’ preferences for alternative models of political decision-making. However, few efforts were made to identify who these citizens are and why they display a certain preference. To address this void in the literature, our article analyzes the determinants of preferences for citizens as decision-makers. It uses individual-level data from a 2014 survey on a probability representative sample in Germa…
Don’t Good Democracies Need “Good” Citizens? Citizen Dispositions and the Study of Democratic Quality
This article advances the argument that quality of democracy depends not only on the performance of democratic institutions but also on the dispositions of citizens. We make three contributions to the study of democratic quality. First, we develop a fine-grained, structured conceptualization of the three core dispositions (democratic commitments, political capacities, and political participation) that make up the citizen component of democratic q…
Participatory developments in majoritarian and consensus democracies
Recently, many democracies have developed towards more citizens’ involvement in direct democracy or public deliberation. Are these developments linked to different types of democracy? Can public deliberation be mainly found in consensus democracies, whereas direct democracy prevails in majoritarian democracies? By analysing OECD countries around the year 2012, we examine these assumptions. The answer is surprisingly clear. The choice of a democra…
Recall in Germany
While recall recently has gained slightly more attention from academia, the use of recall has hardly been under systematic scrutiny. Our study tackles this research gap and seeks to answer the following question: What combinations of conditions facilitate or constrain the use of local recall (in Germany)? It provides a qualitative comparative analysis of conditions of recall use in 11 German federal states. Building on theories of democratic inno…
Explaining Political Efficacy in Deliberative Procedures - A Novel Methodological Approach
So far, not much research has been done explaining the change of political efficacy in deliberative procedures, and case studies or experiments prevail in the field. Quantitative, systematic studies of real-life cases are missing. This article contributes to filling this gap. It identifies factors which lead to increased group-related political efficacy in deliberative procedures applying an almost novel method, i.e. a quantitative meta-synthesis…
Linking Democratic Preferences and Political Participation
An extensive body of literature discusses the disaffection of citizens with representative democracy and highlights increasing citizens’ preferences for political decision-makers beyond elected politicians. But so far, little research has been conducted to analyse the relations between citizens’ respective preferences and their political behaviour. To address this void in the literature, our article investigates the extent to which citizens’ pref…
Should participatory opportunities be a component of democratic quality? The role of citizen views in resolving a conceptual controversy
There is consensus in quality-of-democracy research on the role of electoral participation, but what about participatory opportunities beyond elections? Non-electoral participatory opportunities have been neglected in most measurements. Recent indices, however, include these opportunities as indicators of democratic quality. Should non-electoral participatory opportunities be considered an essential component of democratic quality? To answer this…
Measuring the quality of democracy
This introductory article discusses current challenges in quality of democracy research, explains the objectives of this Special Issue, and provides a brief overview of controversies in existing indices that are considered by the contributors to this Special Issue
Putting the demos back into the concept of democratic quality
In this paper we argue that the concept of democratic quality consists of two necessary, but independently insufficient, components. The first is an opportunity-structure component, which includes the institutional and structural opportunities that allow for democratic rule. The second is a citizen component, which refers to the ways in which citizens can and do breathe life into existing institutional opportunities for democratic rule. Based on …
Can Democracy Be Saved? Participation, Deliberation and Social Movements
Linking Democratic Preferences and Political Participation
An extensive body of literature discusses the disaffection of citizens with representative democracy and highlights increasing citizens’ preferences for political decision-makers beyond elected politicians. But so far, little research has been conducted to analyse the relations between citizens’ respective preferences and their political behaviour. To address this void in the literature, our article investigates the extent to which citizens’ pref…
An Alternative to Representation
Extensive scholarly attention is devoted to citizens’ preferences for alternative models of political decision-making. However, few efforts were made to identify who these citizens are and why they display a certain preference. To address this void in the literature, our article analyzes the determinants of preferences for citizens as decision-makers. It uses individual-level data from a 2014 survey on a probability representative sample in Germa…
Support for direct and deliberative models of democracy in the UK
The models of direct and deliberative democracy are broadly considered the major alternatives to representative democracy. So far, the two models have been merged under the broad umbrella of participatory democracy and thus little is known about why citizens support direct democracy and/or deliberation. They are distinct procedures, driven by different logics and outcomes and this makes it likely that the preference for them rest on different pre…
Participatory Governance
Participatory governance is a concept that is receiving increasing prominence. However, more empirical research is needed to clarify whether participatory governance is beneficial or detrimental to democracy. The local level is a dynamic field for participatory experiments and, therefore, particularly rewarding for researchers interested in scrutinizing the impacts of participatory governance empirically. In this article, Local Agenda 21 serves a…
Reflections and findings on the critical citizen
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe proclaimed the year 2005 the ‘European Year of Democratic Citizenship through Education’, but the question is: What does the democracy‐promoting citizen look like? This article focuses on the question of whether satisfied and supportive citizens or critical citizens have attitudes that promote democracy. The discussion of this question is based on empirical results from a survey of German citize…
Participatory developments in majoritarian and consensus democracies
Recently, many democracies have developed towards more citizens’ involvement in direct democracy or public deliberation. Are these developments linked to different types of democracy? Can public deliberation be mainly found in consensus democracies, whereas direct democracy prevails in majoritarian democracies? By analysing OECD countries around the year 2012, we examine these assumptions. The answer is surprisingly clear. The choice of a democra…
Saward’s Concept of the Representative Claim Revisited
Representation is a process of making, accepting, or rejecting representative claims (Disch, 2015; Saward, 2014). This groundbreaking insight challenged the standard assumption that representative democracy can be reduced to elections and activities of elected representatives (Pitkin, 1967). It broadened the scope of representative democracy to encompass representation activities beyond those authorized by elections, transformed our thinking and …
Putting the demos back into the concept of democratic quality
In this paper we argue that the concept of democratic quality consists of two necessary, but independently insufficient, components. The first is an opportunity-structure component, which includes the institutional and structural opportunities that allow for democratic rule. The second is a citizen component, which refers to the ways in which citizens can and do breathe life into existing institutional opportunities for democratic rule. Based on …
Democratic Mobilisation through Quotas
The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of quotas on the mobilisation of politically under-represented groups. This topic was analysed through two case studies of women in local politics in India and Germany. Gender quotas have changed the political landscape in both countries to a considerable degree. Firstly, most of the women interviewed in both countries began their political careers without political ambitions. Secondly, many…
Measuring the quality of democracy
This introductory article discusses current challenges in quality of democracy research, explains the objectives of this Special Issue, and provides a brief overview of controversies in existing indices that are considered by the contributors to this Special Issue
Do Critical Citizens Foster Better Governance? A Comparative Study
Both critical citizens and governance are attracting increasing interest in political science. Strangely enough, however, the two strands of research are rarely combined. This article sheds light on the relation between governance and political criticism by focusing on Europe. The article discusses and examines whether the level of political criticism expressed by a state's citizenry correlates with or even affects the quality of governance. In c…
Citizen Deliberation in Germany
This article explores the capacity of randomly-selected, citizen deliberation procedures to deliver on their promise to generate inclusive and considered citizen judgements, connecting these to political authority and the broader public sphere. These 'mini-publics' are increasingly adopted in representative democratic systems. Germany is no exception and has been at the forefront of this trend. The article begins with a historical overview of cit…
Public Deliberation or Popular Votes? Measuring the Performance of Different Types of Participatory Democracy
There is a growing body of empirical research on democracies with strong or weak deliberative and/or direct democratic features. But how do these features affect the performance of a country? How do participatory types of democracies differ considering system performance, democratic performance, and social performance? Which type is more successful? Although these questions are most crucial and pressing in democracy research, they remain mostly u…
Recall in Germany
While recall recently has gained slightly more attention from academia, the use of recall has hardly been under systematic scrutiny. Our study tackles this research gap and seeks to answer the following question: What combinations of conditions facilitate or constrain the use of local recall (in Germany)? It provides a qualitative comparative analysis of conditions of recall use in 11 German federal states. Building on theories of democratic inno…
Democratic Resource or Democratic Threat? Profiles of Critical and Uncritical Citizens in Comparative Perspective
Why are some countries democratic and democratize continuously, while others stagnate? According to theories on political culture, citizens' attitudes are crucial elements. In this context the discussion on critical citizens is gaining prominence: Critical citizens are regarded as a threat to democratic stability or as promoter for democratic reforms. Based on the International Social Survey data (2004), I will contribute some empirical evidence …
Limited Congruence
Both citizens and political parties refer to novel participatory practices in the contemporary crisis of representative democracy. Survey data indicate a growing demand for such practices within the electorate, while political parties have also begun discussing them more frequently. However, previous studies on citizens’ attitudes and parties’ discourse on democratic innovations rarely speak to each other. It remains unclear whether citizens’ att…
Direct democracy and equality
Direct democracy is seen as a potential cure to the malaise of representative democracy. It is increasingly used worldwide. However, research on the effects of direct democracy on important indicators like socio-economic, legal, and political equality is scarce, and mainly limited to Europe and the US. The global perspective is missing. This article starts to close this gap. It presents descriptive findings on direct democratic votes at the natio…
Claims of Representation
This article seeks to build a bridge between the empirical scholarship rooted in the traditional theory of political representation and constructivist theory on representation by focusing on the authorization of claims. It seeks to answer how claims can be authorized beyond elections - selecting three democratic innovations and tracing claims through the claim-making process. Different participatory democratic innovations are selected - providing…
Systematizing Democratic Systems Approaches
The notion that democracy is a system is ever present in democratic theory. However, what it means to think systemically about democracy (as opposed to what it means for a political system to be democratic) is under-elaborated. This article sets out a meta-level framework for thinking systemically about democracy, built upon seven conceptual building blocks, which we term (1) functions, (2) norms, (3) practices, (4) actors, (5) arenas, (6) levels…
Rethinking Representation
The established notion of political representation is challenged on multiple accounts—theoretically, conceptually, and empirically. The contributions to this thematic issue explore the constructivist turn as the means for rethinking political representation today around the world. The articles included here seek to reconsider representation by theoretically and empirically reassessing how representation is conceptualized, claimed and performed—in…
Don’t Good Democracies Need “Good” Citizens? Citizen Dispositions and the Study of Democratic Quality
This article advances the argument that quality of democracy depends not only on the performance of democratic institutions but also on the dispositions of citizens. We make three contributions to the study of democratic quality. First, we develop a fine-grained, structured conceptualization of the three core dispositions (democratic commitments, political capacities, and political participation) that make up the citizen component of democratic q…
Should participatory opportunities be a component of democratic quality? The role of citizen views in resolving a conceptual controversy
There is consensus in quality-of-democracy research on the role of electoral participation, but what about participatory opportunities beyond elections? Non-electoral participatory opportunities have been neglected in most measurements. Recent indices, however, include these opportunities as indicators of democratic quality. Should non-electoral participatory opportunities be considered an essential component of democratic quality? To answer this…
How to Improve the Quality of Democracy? Experiences with Participatory Innovations at the Local Level in Germany
Despite the world-wide triumph of democracy, the quest for an optimal politike has not yet reached the "end of history." It turns out that representative democracies do not necessarily satisfy citizenries. These malaises are regarded as causes for concern and political actors increasingly pin their hopes on participatory innovations as re-legitimizing responses. But do they work? Germany is an especially interesting case for empirical research. A…
Direct democracy and equality
Direct democratic instruments are increasingly applied in many European countries. They are subject to an ongoing public—and often highly controversial—debate. The question of how direct democracy relates to equality, i.e. if direct democratic instruments have the potential to foster equality or if they lead to more inequality, is crucial in this debate. Research has struggled to come up with a general answer to this question with scholars assumi…
Zivilgesellschaft und Sozialkapital
Der Beitrag der Zivilgesellschaft zur politischen und sozialen Integration - Soziales Kapital: Garant fur Demokratie oder Ursache politischer Exklusion? - Ethnische Gemeinschaften: Brucken zur Integration oder Parallelgesellschaften? Mit Beitragern von: Maria Berger - Jan Delhey - Claudia Diehl - Peter Feindt - Jurgen Fijalkowski - Christian Galonska - Brigitte Geissel - Volker Heins - Kai-Uwe Hellmann - Kristine Kern - Ruud Koopmans - Kenneth Ne…
Zivilgesellschaft und Sozialkapital
Der Beitrag der Zivilgesellschaft zur politischen und sozialen Integration - Soziales Kapital: Garant fur Demokratie oder Ursache politischer Exklusion? - Ethnische Gemeinschaften: Brucken zur Integration oder Parallelgesellschaften? Mit Beitragern von: Maria Berger - Jan Delhey - Claudia Diehl - Peter Feindt - Jurgen Fijalkowski - Christian Galonska - Brigitte Geissel - Volker Heins - Kai-Uwe Hellmann - Kristine Kern - Ruud Koopmans - Kenneth Ne…
Democratic Mobilisation through Quotas
The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of quotas on the mobilisation of politically under-represented groups. This topic was analysed through two case studies of women in local politics in India and Germany. Gender quotas have changed the political landscape in both countries to a considerable degree. Firstly, most of the women interviewed in both countries began their political careers without political ambitions. Secondly, many…
Partizipation in Neuen Sozialen Bewegungen
Kritische Vernunft für demokratische Transformationen
Dieses Buch zeichnet eine wissenschaftliche Biografie nach und reflektiert so die Entwicklung der gendersensiblen Politikwissenschaft: Die Herkunft aus der Kritischen Theorie mit der sichtbaren Rückbindung an deren Paradigmen, die politikwissenschaftliche Beschäftigung mit Arbeit als zentralem 'Knackpunkt' genderspezifischer Theorie und Politik, die Diskussion um politische Sozialisation als Hemmschuh und gleichzeitiger Ansatzpunkt frauenspezifis…
Do Critical Citizens Foster Better Governance? A Comparative Study
Both critical citizens and governance are attracting increasing interest in political science. Strangely enough, however, the two strands of research are rarely combined. This article sheds light on the relation between governance and political criticism by focusing on Europe. The article discusses and examines whether the level of political criticism expressed by a state's citizenry correlates with or even affects the quality of governance. In c…
Reflections and findings on the critical citizen
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe proclaimed the year 2005 the ‘European Year of Democratic Citizenship through Education’, but the question is: What does the democracy‐promoting citizen look like? This article focuses on the question of whether satisfied and supportive citizens or critical citizens have attitudes that promote democracy. The discussion of this question is based on empirical results from a survey of German citize…
Democratic Resource or Democratic Threat? Profiles of Critical and Uncritical Citizens in Comparative Perspective
Why are some countries democratic and democratize continuously, while others stagnate? According to theories on political culture, citizens' attitudes are crucial elements. In this context the discussion on critical citizens is gaining prominence: Critical citizens are regarded as a threat to democratic stability or as promoter for democratic reforms. Based on the International Social Survey data (2004), I will contribute some empirical evidence …
Participatory Governance
Participatory governance is a concept that is receiving increasing prominence. However, more empirical research is needed to clarify whether participatory governance is beneficial or detrimental to democracy. The local level is a dynamic field for participatory experiments and, therefore, particularly rewarding for researchers interested in scrutinizing the impacts of participatory governance empirically. In this article, Local Agenda 21 serves a…
How to Improve the Quality of Democracy? Experiences with Participatory Innovations at the Local Level in Germany
Despite the world-wide triumph of democracy, the quest for an optimal politike has not yet reached the "end of history." It turns out that representative democracies do not necessarily satisfy citizenries. These malaises are regarded as causes for concern and political actors increasingly pin their hopes on participatory innovations as re-legitimizing responses. But do they work? Germany is an especially interesting case for empirical research. A…
Regieren und Partizipation – zwischen Legitimität und Effektivität?
Das zentrale Thema in Hubert Heinelts akademischer Laufbahn ist die Suche nach legitimen und effektiven Arten des Regierens. Seit Jahren beschäftigt ihn die Frage, was angesichts der alten und neuen Herausforderungen repräsentativer Demokratien zu tun ist, um politische Legitimität und Effektivität zu gewährleisten.
Evaluating Democratic Innovations
Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe
Can Democracy Be Saved? Participation, Deliberation and Social Movements
Should participatory opportunities be a component of democratic quality? The role of citizen views in resolving a conceptual controversy
There is consensus in quality-of-democracy research on the role of electoral participation, but what about participatory opportunities beyond elections? Non-electoral participatory opportunities have been neglected in most measurements. Recent indices, however, include these opportunities as indicators of democratic quality. Should non-electoral participatory opportunities be considered an essential component of democratic quality? To answer this…
Measuring the quality of democracy
This introductory article discusses current challenges in quality of democracy research, explains the objectives of this Special Issue, and provides a brief overview of controversies in existing indices that are considered by the contributors to this Special Issue
Putting the demos back into the concept of democratic quality
In this paper we argue that the concept of democratic quality consists of two necessary, but independently insufficient, components. The first is an opportunity-structure component, which includes the institutional and structural opportunities that allow for democratic rule. The second is a citizen component, which refers to the ways in which citizens can and do breathe life into existing institutional opportunities for democratic rule. Based on …
Explaining Political Efficacy in Deliberative Procedures - A Novel Methodological Approach
So far, not much research has been done explaining the change of political efficacy in deliberative procedures, and case studies or experiments prevail in the field. Quantitative, systematic studies of real-life cases are missing. This article contributes to filling this gap. It identifies factors which lead to increased group-related political efficacy in deliberative procedures applying an almost novel method, i.e. a quantitative meta-synthesis…
Linking Democratic Preferences and Political Participation
An extensive body of literature discusses the disaffection of citizens with representative democracy and highlights increasing citizens’ preferences for political decision-makers beyond elected politicians. But so far, little research has been conducted to analyse the relations between citizens’ respective preferences and their political behaviour. To address this void in the literature, our article investigates the extent to which citizens’ pref…
Don’t Good Democracies Need “Good” Citizens? Citizen Dispositions and the Study of Democratic Quality
This article advances the argument that quality of democracy depends not only on the performance of democratic institutions but also on the dispositions of citizens. We make three contributions to the study of democratic quality. First, we develop a fine-grained, structured conceptualization of the three core dispositions (democratic commitments, political capacities, and political participation) that make up the citizen component of democratic q…
Participatory developments in majoritarian and consensus democracies
Recently, many democracies have developed towards more citizens’ involvement in direct democracy or public deliberation. Are these developments linked to different types of democracy? Can public deliberation be mainly found in consensus democracies, whereas direct democracy prevails in majoritarian democracies? By analysing OECD countries around the year 2012, we examine these assumptions. The answer is surprisingly clear. The choice of a democra…
Recall in Germany
While recall recently has gained slightly more attention from academia, the use of recall has hardly been under systematic scrutiny. Our study tackles this research gap and seeks to answer the following question: What combinations of conditions facilitate or constrain the use of local recall (in Germany)? It provides a qualitative comparative analysis of conditions of recall use in 11 German federal states. Building on theories of democratic inno…
It Depends…Different Direct Democratic Instruments and Equality in Europe from 1990 to 2015
Despite the popularity of direct democracy in recent decades, research on the actual output effects of popular decision-making is rare. This is especially true with regard to equality, where there are at least three major research gaps: 1) a lack of cross-national analyses; 2) insufficient investigation of the differential effects of different direct democratic instruments on equality; and 3) a failure to distinguish between different aspects of …
More or less equality? Direct democracy in Europe from 1990 to 2015
Systematizing Democratic Systems Approaches
The notion that democracy is a system is ever present in democratic theory. However, what it means to think systemically about democracy (as opposed to what it means for a political system to be democratic) is under-elaborated. This article sets out a meta-level framework for thinking systemically about democracy, built upon seven conceptual building blocks, which we term (1) functions, (2) norms, (3) practices, (4) actors, (5) arenas, (6) levels…
Saward’s Concept of the Representative Claim Revisited
Representation is a process of making, accepting, or rejecting representative claims (Disch, 2015; Saward, 2014). This groundbreaking insight challenged the standard assumption that representative democracy can be reduced to elections and activities of elected representatives (Pitkin, 1967). It broadened the scope of representative democracy to encompass representation activities beyond those authorized by elections, transformed our thinking and …
Political science (36 obras) · Politics (32 obras) · Law (31 obras) · Democracy (29 obras) · Sociology (28 obras) · Law (25 obras) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (20 obras) · Public Administration (19 obras) · Public Administration (17 obras) · Economics (16 obras)