This workshop (ECPR Network 'The Sciences of the Democracies') will critically examine current paradigms of democracy research and, if necessary, formulate new paradigms. For example, democracy is usually understood as a community of self-governing, 'autonomous' individuals or groups. This ideal of self-governance is deeply intertwined with assumptions about emancipatory processes. While some argue that only 'emancipated' individuals or communities can truly govern themselves, others see emancipation as the goal to be achieved through democratic, inclusive politics. Such competing conceptions of democracy raises the question of what conclusions democracy studies can draw from the challenges to democracy we are currently facing.
In political science, the ‘democratic crisis diagnosis’ belongs to the topical core of the discipline. Like all major topics in the discipline, the diagnosis of democratic crisis is subject to a boom, the current upswing which began in large part with Colin Crouch's post-democracy. Since then, we have been discussing the decline of democracy in many of its facets. However, it is not only the impending dysfunctionality of established democracies that causes concern, but also the trend towards autocratisation of countries that were model democratisers (eg Poland and Hungary) and, finally, the obvious misjudgement of the 'triumph of democracy' and the 'end of history', including the end of the idea of democracy promotion and peace-making through economic dependencies. Further complicating this is the ever looming threat of environmental degradations, even ecocides, that many of the world’s leading democracies are complicit in producing. What can democracy research achieve in such a situation and has it always asked the right questions?
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1: Which democracy research paradigms are valid and what shifts are needed to address democracy's challenges?
2: How can democracy research help preserve, defend, or advance democracy as a monitoring institution?
3: What implications do considerations from postcolonial studies or comparative political theory have?
4: Which concepts from other languages could deepen democracies today?
5: What would it take to change Herbert Spencer’s view on democracies in today’s context?
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