Description
Book SynopsisRethinking Democratic Innovation takes a fresh look at diverging visions of improving democratic governance and asks whether these existing tensions could be made productive. Could different visions of democratic revitalisation complement and correct each other in ways that are good for democracy? Is it conceivable that combined approaches address a larger part of the democratic challenge, while isolated approaches, centralizing deliberative or plebiscitary democracy, are confined to more limited areas of concern? This book ultimately provides an affirmative answer, outlining the scope for hybrid democratic innovations that thrive on exploiting, not eliminating, tensions between diverging visions of improved democracy. Supplementing democratic theory with a cultural perspective, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of plans and methods geared toward improving democratic governance. Revisiting Mary Douglas''s seminal take on culture as pollution reduction, processes of democr
Trade ReviewThis wonderfully topical and highly insightful monograph deserves to become the go-to resource for anyone wanting a clear overview and sophisticated assessment of the wide array of attempts to complement, re-invigorate, and correct the current performances of representative democracies across the world. No doubt the best monograph on democratic politics by a Dutch political scientist since Arend Lijphart's modern classic Patterns of Democracy (1999). * Prof. Dr Paul 't Hart, Utrecht University *
Table of ContentsPart 1: Understanding Variation 1: The layered quality of democratic innovation and reform 2: A cultural perspective on purity and democracy 3: Democratic innovation beyond deliberative reflection 4: Exploring the new plebiscitary democracy 5: Between counters and talkers: grasping the full matrix Part 2: Advancing Innovation 6: Key values for democratic-governance innovation 7: The deliberative referendum: reflections on a national-level hybrid 8: Participatory Budgeting-new style: reflections on a local-level hybrid 9: Conclusion: on the hybrid-innovations hypothesis
