About the Democracy Innovation Working Group
What do citizen juries, participatory budgeting, and digital tools such as Pol.is have in common? They are all methods of engaging everyday people in the act of public governance and public judgment. Can these methods help revilitize democracy?
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How are democracies innovating?How are democracies innovating?
From the permanent citizen assemblies in Paris and Brussels, to the large scale use of digital tools such as Pol.is in Taiwan, democracies across the world are finding ways to involve their citizens directly in policymaking.
Some of these changes represent a return to the roots of democracy. In ancient Greece, most officials were not elected- they were chosen using a lottery system. In recent decades, civic lotteries have reemerged as a promising way to reinvigorate democracy, harness the collective intelligence of large and diverse communities, and tackle complex issues with the nuance and inclusivity they require. -
Who are we?In the days before the Fall 2021 Hannah Arendt Center Conference on Revitalizing Democracy, researchers from the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade led a workshop on Sortition- the method of choosing government representatives by lottery rather than elections. After participating in the workshop, scholars then attended the two-day Conference. This working group is a collaboration between the Hannah Arendt Humanities Network and the Laboratory for Active Citizenship at the Institute.
Partners:
Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory
The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory has been holding Citizen Assemblies in Belgrade on topics such as increasing traffic mobility. They recently published a study, “Participatory and Deliberative Democracy: Citizens’ Assembly and the Organization of Traffic Mobility in Belgrade”.
Participatory Governance Initiative (Arizona State University)
The mandate of the Participatory Governance Initiative at Arizona State University is to promote excellence, collaboration, and innovation in participatory governance research and practice. The Participatory Governance Initiative is a university-wide interdisciplinary space that aims at bringing together academics, students, elected and non-elected government officials, community members and practitioners interested in the theory and practice of participatory governance. Special attention is paid to the examination of emerging trends and innovative experiments around the world that are relevant to the realities of governance and public engagement in the 21st century.
Democracy Innovation Hub (Bard College)
The Democracy Innovation Hub at the Hannah Arendt Center aims to convene and inspire an ecosystem of civic innovators to build a more resilient, innovative and collaborative democracy. We convene and train public servants, community leaders and educators to use participatory methods of engagement and tools, with a focus on citizens’ assemblies.
