A Defense of Participatory Democracy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Weak Democracy: When Participation becomes Democratic
Advocates of participatory democracy often point to the workplace as an important domain for the expansion of democratic practices. However, some writers see the idea of “workplace democracy” as an oxymoron in the context of enterprises in which final control is exercised by top managers, and as little but a mechanism for increasing the extraction of surplus value from labor. The underlying question has to do with whether, or the conditions under which, procedures that are ostensibly democratic can be understood as legitimately so in the absence of final authority. This paper breaks “democracy” down into its constituent elements, participation and rule, and offers a theory of “weak democracy” as encompassing one or the other of these elements (but not both). With this theory, some forms of workplace participation can be understood as weakly democratic in a way that democratic theorists should recognize as legitimate.
Representative vs. cooperative democracy: Beyond small group participatory democracy
2008
The liberal justification of participatory democracy is based on the argument that freedom and the rule of law in society are only compatible if each individual participates in making and agrees to the laws they abide by. 1 Because only the unachievable condition of universal consensus satisfies this principle participatory democracy is generally rejected as a utopian and unrealistic objective for anything larger than a small group that can meet and talk face-to-face. Representative democracy is then put forward as the best practically achievable alternative. Implicit in this argument, however, is a systematically flawed conception of human agency and identity. This flawed conception of human agency and identity underpins not only this justification of participatory democracy, but also the legitimation of the arrangements of representative democracies and neo-classical or 'free market' economics. In order to articulate a pragmatically achievable conception of participatory democracy we need to both expose and challenge these flawed conceptions of human agency and identity and develop an alternative justification of participatory democracy based on an alternative, more realistic, conception of human agency and identity.
Problems of Participation: Reflections on Democracy, Authority and the Struggle for Common Life
This book gathers together a collection of essays organised around three ‘problems’ of participatory democracy. These problems raise questions, conundrums and challenges for participatory practice and thinking. They point towards both difficulties and opportunities. We are not identifying ‘problems’ in order to simply criticize or reject participation. Problems are an enduring part of all worthwhile practice, driving creativity, understanding and skills. Our aim is to vitalize participatory thought and practice by raising and reflecting upon three broad problems. The first problem that the essays address is that ‘Participatory Democracy Needs Authority’. The authors of essays in this section affirm the value of democracy, paying particular attention to how it needs to be cultivated through structures of authority. Those who have authority and those who grant it are connected by bonds of trust that allow us to hold people and actions to account. Democracy’s dependence upon authority constitutes a problem, creating challenges and dilemmas, because trust takes time and emotional labour to build and often seems to be a scarce resource. Moreover, we have to deal with the fact that there are always power relations and inequalities at play – however participatory our practice or democratic our intentions. The second problem that we take up is that ‘Participatory Democracy is a Craft’. Rather than understanding democracy in terms of electoral politics, and participation in terms of handbooks and manuals brimming with the latest techniques and models, the contributors attend to the subtleties of effective participation, whether in civil society activity, processes of collaborative learning or in ‘ordinary’ life. Enhancing democracy through better forms of participation requires particular ethical and embodied sensibilities and commitments, which can only be developed through practical experience, and which need to be nurtured through slow apprenticeship. Democracy is craftwork more than it is a set of institutions, textbook techniques or processes. However, as the authors of this section suggest, it is a difficult, costly and embodied challenge to learn the skills and ethos of such craft. The final problem is that ‘Participatory Democracy is a Struggle Against Privatization’. Many advocates of participatory democracy are more or less explicitly committed to resisting ‘privatization’ both in the sense of commodification and market dominance, and in the sense of individualisation of life and experience – seeing both as opposed to equality and dignity. But many proponents of neo-liberal marketization and individualised freedom also promote myriad forms of ‘participation’. Further, as is evident in theatre box offices, ‘participation sells’. This raises awkward questions and uncomfortable challenges for proponents of participation – a challenge that the authors of this section try to address, in part, by reframing participation in terms of acting in, and creating, alternative visions of what we share in common. We hope that this collection of essays helps in opening up conversations around participation. Such conversation is crucial, not simply for specialist communities of practitioners or academics, but for everyone who is interested in democracy and dignity today. ‘Participation’ has become nigh on ubiquitous as an ambition, description and buzzword throughout social life, from marketing strategies and economic development, through government reform and alternative politics, to education and the arts. We might even say that participation is the form, the mode of organisation, that defines our present moment. Participation is our condition, our imperative and our problem.
Beyond participative democracy
IRIDE, 32 (88), 2019
The present situation of the regimes of representative democracy is one in which those who govern are convinced that they have to take steps to renew the link between them and the governed and at the same time contend that handing over the prerogatives which are the preserve of State technicians and administrators to ordinary citizens is an unrealistic, harmful and even dangerous undertaking. This article considers the nature and soundness of a demand for a truly deliberative democracy emanating from those groups of citizens who devise, organize and implement what might be called “autonomous political practices” which reach far beyond participation mechanisms as they claim the key role ordinary people have to play in political matters and in fostering the democratization of democracy.
European Political Science Review, 2024
This article discusses reproductionist perspectives that assume there is little local participatory institutions can do to address the underrepresentation and the domination of some social groups. While there is also empirical basis to be skeptical, the evidence suggests that, occasionally, the reproduction of class inequalities can be counteracted. This encourages us to consider the conditions that favor greater participation of working-class, economically and culturally disadvantaged people. Comparing evidence from various studies in a range of countries, the article argues that certain contextual factors and inclusion tools produce higher rates of mobilization and more egalitarian deliberations. Specifically, the article focuses on the effects of three conditions: a) special mobilization efforts; b) design choices and inclusion tools; and c) the broadening of the political subject through cultural mobilization. As well as reflecting on the shortcomings of these factors, a new research agenda for social equality in participation is also proposed.