1st Edition
Participatory Democracy and Political Participation Can Participatory Engineering Bring Citizens Back In?
A detailed new examination of the initiatives governments are exploring to reform the institutions and procedures of liberal democracy in order to provide more opportunities for political participation and inclusion.
Combining theory and empirical case studies, this is a systematic evaluation of the most visible and explicit efforts to engineer political participation via institutional reforms. Part I discusses the phenomenon of participatory engineering from a conceptual standpoint, while parts II, III and IV take a comparative, as well as an empirical, perspective. The contributors to these sections analyze participatory institutions on the basis of empirical models of democracy such as direct democracy, civil society and responsive government and analyze the impact of these models on political behaviour. Part V includes exploratory regional case studies on specific reform initiatives that present descriptive accounts of the policies and politics of these reforms.
Delivering a detailed assessment of democratic reform, this book will of strong interest to students and researchers of political theory, democracy and comparative politics.
Introduction
Democratic reform and political participation
Thomas Zittel and Dieter Fuchs
PART ONE: Democratic reform and political participation: Two theoretical perspectives
1 Participatory democracy and political participation
Thomas Zittel
2 Participatory, liberal, and electronic democracy
Dieter Fuchs
PART TWO: Democratic reform and political responsiveness
3 Political participation in party primaries: Increase in quantity, decrease in quality?
Gideon Rahat and Reuven Y. Hazan
4 Scotland: A new era for participatory democracy?
Peter McLaverty and Sue Morris
PART THREE: Democratic reform and direct democracy
5 The effects of political institutions and city size on political participation: The Swiss case
Simone Baglioni
6 Direct democracy and political participation from a cross-national perspective
Silvano Moeckli
PART FOUR: Democratic reform and civil society
7 "Letting George do it": Accounting for low participation rates?
William A. Maloney and Grant Jordan
8 Trust and governance: How culture and economics constraint the state
Eric M. Uslaner
9 Workplace democracy: Turning workers into citizens?
Neil Carter
PART FIVE: Democratic reform and local government
10 Mobilizing for participatory democracy? The case of democracy policy in Sweden
Stig Montin
11 Democratic renewal in local government? Top down strategies for bottom up involvement
Jacob Aars
Conclusion
Can participatory engineering bring citizens back in?
Thomas Zittel
Biography
Zittel, Thomas; Fuchs, Dieter
