Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century

Description

How a new model of democracy that opens up power to ordinary citizens could strengthen inclusiveness, responsiveness, and accountability in modern societies To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeti

Helene Landemore is associate professor of political science at Yale University. She is the author of Democratic Reason (Princeton) and Hume. Twitter @landemore

"Finalist for the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award" "Open Democracy envisions what true government by mass leadership could look like. Her model is based on the simple idea that, if government by the people is a goal, the people ought to do the governing."---Nathan Heller, New Yorker "A great defence of both sortition and deliberation as complements to representative democracy."---Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Open Magazine "A bold exploration of how we can move beyond a purely electoral conception of democratic representation. Using normative democratic theory and real-world examples of innovations in citizen representation, Helene Landemore argues for a vision of democracy that is more faithful to popular rule, more likely to tap into democratic reason, and more stable and durable than electoral democracy."---Erica Yu, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics "Ambitious. . . . A scheme that breaks with two liberal-democratic institutions that are usually taken for granted: elections and political parties."---Jan-Werner Mueller, Project Syndicate "[Landemore] argues that we need a new, more inclusive system of governance that is less elitist and more participatory to cure what ails democracy." * The Nation * "A fascinating, wide-ranging book."---Rachael Walsh, International Journal of Constitutional Law "Important."---Christopher Kutz, Los Angeles Review of Books