Doug Chalmers | Columbia University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Doug Chalmers
One criterion of democracy is that laws and policies are rooted in the will of the people. The co... more One criterion of democracy is that laws and policies are rooted in the will of the people. The conventional system of elected representatives was created to secure that linkage. Looking at important but neglected spheres of politics there is actually operating a much more agile system of linkage, including linkage to non-citizens. I discuss two dilemmas that emerge from that agility: how to make the links democratic if they are changing dynamically, and how to define 'the people' whose will and interests matter. In conclusion I raise the possibility that it may be time to think about polities not as just reformed nation-states, but as dynamic political actors, which I call the 'adaptive polity'.
One criterion of democracy is that laws and policies are rooted in the will of the people. The co... more One criterion of democracy is that laws and policies are rooted in the will of the people. The conventional system of elected representatives was created to secure that linkage. Looking at important but neglected spheres of politics there is actually operating a much more agile system of linkage, including linkage to non-citizens. I discuss two dilemmas that emerge from that agility: how to make the links democratic if they are changing dynamically, and how to define 'the people' whose will and interests matter. In conclusion I raise the possibility that it may be time to think about polities not as just reformed nation-states, but as dynamic political actors, which I call the 'adaptive polity'.