Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought.

Edited by Paul Barry Clarke and Joe Foweraker.

Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge, 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001.

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

0-203-44308-X (Adobe e-Reader Format)

1003 pages.

Source.

“Containing almost 200 entries from 'accountability' to the 'Westminster model' the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought explores all the ideas that matter to democracy past, present and future. It is destined to become the first port-of-call for all students, teachers and researchers of political science interested in democratic ideas, democratic practice, and the quality of democratic governance. The Encyclopedia provides extensive coverage of all the key concepts of democratic thought written by a stellar team of distinguished international contributors. The Encyclopedia draws on every tradition of democratic thought, as well as developing new thinking, in order to provide full coverage of the key democratic concepts and engage with their practical implications for the conduct of democratic politics in the world today. In this way, it brings every kind of democratic thinking to bear on the challenges facing contemporary democracies and on the possibilities of the democratic future. The Encyclopedia is global in scope and responds in detail to the democratic revolution of recent decades. Referring both to the established democratic states of Western Europe, North America and Australasia, and to the recent democracies of Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, Africa and Asia, classical democratic concerns are related to new democracies, and to important changes in the older democracies. Supplemented by full bibliographical information, extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought is a unique work of reference combining the expertise of many of the world's leading political scientists, political sociologists and political philosophers. It will be welcomed as an essential resource for both teaching and for independent study, and as a solid starting point both for further research and wider exploration.” Publisher’s Note via Amazon.

From page 606 in the article concerning Deliberative and participatory democracy :

“ … Because popular participation is highly constrained, official accountability is relatively limited. Citizens do not know enough either to instruct or to judge government. In the democratic vision, government and governors are the agents of the citizens, but in fact our agents are peculiarly our rulers. Hence, our fundamental problem, if participation must be as constrained as it is and seems likely to be, is to structure government institutions in ways that make them responsive to the interests of citizens. For all its flaws, representative democratic government, with officials subject to electoral sanction, seems to be the best device we have yet discovered for doing this. The scale of modern states, the complexity of many issues in them, and the extent of political ignorance in them threaten this device.”

Comment:

But we do have elections where citizens are deemed to know enough to elect a government as a whole.

The advent of high speed information technology shines a new light on whether general elections every 3,4 or 5 years are now the best way to inform democracy.

One could imagine, with all the very necessary safeguards, a participatory system where eligible citizens vote on issues of the day through their digital device. Initially of course such voting would be only for information purposes. Until the system had settled down over time, perhaps months and years rather than days. One could then further contemplate that a government wanting to introduce a particularly sensitive piece of legislation might require say 60% of eligible voters to confirm acceptability of that legislation. Over time one can imagine such a system developing in maturity and sophistication so that government becomes more response to citizens needs.

In democracies driven by the graffiti of social media, perhaps such a change should be sooner rather than later.

GHM.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews