Achieving accountable government
Citizens’ assemblies provide an institutional foothold for republican political practices
Calls for a UK citizens convention to assess and rethink our current political and democratic arrangements have been frequently heard in the wake of the referendum on Scottish independence, held last autumn. John Grant argues that these conventions can be useful in providing an institutional foothold for republican ideas, which have struggled to find a policy […]
Why participatory governance offers a realistic route to addressing the EU’s legitimacy crisis
How can EU decision-making be brought closer to Europe’s citizens? Based on a case study of the ‘REACH’ regulation governing the production and use of chemical substances, Karl-Oskar Lindgren writes on the potential for a participatory governance approach to increase the EU’s legitimacy by enhancing the capacity for stakeholders and civil society actors to play […]
20 things we learned about democracy in February 2015
February is the shortest month of the year, but with May’s General Election waddling ever closer, democracy factoids are never far away. Here, Democratic Audit UK’s Sean Kippin rounds up 20 more inane, amusing, and occasionally interesting bits of trivia and research for your amusement. Similar Posts20 things we learned about democracy in March 201520 […]
An Athenian solution to democratic discontent
New forms of contact democracy and innovative forums that allow political and economic institutions to deliberate with citizens are important steps in the long-term battle to renew representative democracy for the 21st century. They should not be seen as a threat to formal systems of government but as important add-ons that enrich democracy and give […]
Lower education levels goes hand in hand with support for direct democracy
What role does education play in the type of political system that citizens would like to see implemented in their country? Hilde Coffé presents results from a study, in collaboration with Ank Michels, using survey data in the Netherlands. The research shows that while all education groups have similar levels of support for representative democracy, […]
Book Review: The Making of Eurosceptic Britain, Second Edition, by Chris Gifford
The Making of Eurosceptic Britain is interesting reading for undergraduates interested in the general field of Britain’s relationship with Europe. The fact that its narrative remains coherent in the face of five years of substantial change in British Euroscepticism is a testament to its rigour, writes Harry Evans. Similar PostsThe EU is extraordinarily complex. But do […]
The deepening of Greek democracy is a crucial step towards economic recovery
The recent Greek election saw the radical leftist party Syriza, led by Alex Trsipras, come to power on a platform of opposing the “Troika” of the European Commission, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund and their punitive austerity programme. Eleni Xiarchogiannopoulou argues that this and subsequent events represent a crucial deepening of Greek democracy […]
Four options for configuring the British constitution
With the SNP surging in Scotland and the break up of the union as plausible as it has ever been. What are the different options for configuring the UK state? In this article, Andrew Blick writes about what the constitutional future might look like. Similar PostsThe Smith Commission Report is short, but packs a big […]
Electoral cycle timing and popular support for a treaty are crucial in determining whether parties advocate referendums on European integration
David Cameron is committed to holding a referendum on the UK’s EU membership should he win a majority at the next general election. In an effort to understand why parties call for referendums on European integration, Andreas Dür and Nikitas Konstantinidis look at data from the ratification of the EU’s Constitutional Treaty in 2004. They […]
The presence of more parties in a governing cabinet can encourage greater transparency
Secrecy is often assumed to be a guiding value of governments, with parties in office tending not to prefer opening up the fullness of their record to public scrutiny, with single-party governments particularly seen as likely to follow this secretive path. Gregory Michener argues that this impulse can be tempered by the presence of more […]
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