Contemporary forms of representative democracy have been facing transitional challenges, which have prompted the rise of ‘democratic innovations’ discourse over the last decades. Participatory and deliberative democracy have challenged the elitist model of representative democracy based on the formalistic concept of electoral representation. A variety of democratic experiments from participatory budgeting programmes, deliberative polling, consensus conference, citizens’ assembly, to ‘crowdsourced’ legislation have been tried worldwide to expand unconventional forms of citizen participation. These experiments have also facilitated new approaches in democratic theory towards the concept of political representation itself. This course addresses the frontier issues of contemporary democratic theories and practices. Students examine various forms of democratic innovations and their real-life effects, discuss different theoretical perspectives, and reflect on their extensive implications for the future of representative democracy.

Email registration by 14 October essential.

Compulsory preceding studies: POLPOP02 Introduction to Political Science

Compulsory preceding studies: POLPOP02 Introduction to Political Science