Governance and Leadership

Democracy: Contemporary challenges and proposals from a theoretical and practical perspective An increasing suspicion about democracy has been noticed for the last three decades (Crozier, Huntington y Watanuki, 1975; Pharr, Putnam & Dalton, 2000), concerning multiple dimensions: from political actors and fundamental institutions to the regulative ideal itself. As a result, a myriad of reflections and proposals has sprung - both from the theoretical and the empirical - focusing on the causes of and possible remedies for this multilayered crisis. In a context of economic recession, functionalist approaches have come to the front, attempting to discover the fundamental base for the stability of democracies and the importance of the economic factor (Morlino, 1995; Linz, 1996; Landman, 2011). Going much further, political scientists around the world concerned with the “quality of democracy” are reflecting on the requirements of a high quality democracy, and empirically testing their presence in our political systems (O’Donnell, 2002; Diamond & Morlino, 2004; Morlino, 2007). In this sense, political theory provides a plurality of ideal models from which our democracies can be evaluated. Habermas’ vindication of self-determination through participation as the central aim of democracy (1961) opened the door to a general critique of the minimalist model (Schumpeter, 1947; Huntington, 1991; Przeworski et al., 1996) from multiple perspectives, such as the deliberative (Elster, 1998), the participatory (Pateman, 1970), the republican (Pettit, 1997), or the radical (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985), among others. These different approaches, far from being mere abstract constructions, lead to very different recommendations; in order to properly evaluate them, an intense theoretical dialogue is needed. The section intends to create a space for panels and papers regarding the contemporary challenges that western democracies face from a theoretical and empirical perspective, including: 1) Accounts of the present crisis of democracy, its causes, characteristics and nature, such as comparative empirical research giving a general view of the problem as well as case studies providing a deeper insight of the phenomenon. Special attention will be paid to those pieces of work concerning the impact of the European economic crisis on the stability of our democratic systems, either questioning or defending the functionalist approach, as well as to reflections from the “quality of democracy” paradigm. 2) Theoretical contributions about the nature and limits of democracy, being of special interest the minimalist, republican, deliberative and radical views. As referred above, this section explicitly encourages putting into (normative) dialogue different traditions of theories of democracy in order to consider how these contrasting approaches lead us to distinct –even contradictory- specific recommendations. 3) Empirical research on the strategies towards a democratic reinforcement, enhanced participation and inclusion in the processes of decision making. In this sense, be welcome panels and papers presenting public policies of constitutional, institutional, administrative and/or electoral reform which pursue to promote civil participation, to increase democratic legitimacy and to strengthen political trust and the subjective efficacy of citizens. Moreover, the section aims to present considerations about the importance of public ethic, transparency and integrity management as elements that may help to set the standards of democracy beyond electoral mechanisms.