ABSTRACT
A detailed new examination of the initiatives governments are exploring to reform the institutions and procedures of liberal democracy in order to provide more opportunities for political participation and inclusion.
Combining theory and empirical case studies, this is a systematic evaluation of the most visible and explicit efforts to engineer political participation via institutional reforms. Part I discusses the phenomenon of participatory engineering from a conceptual standpoint, while parts II, III and IV take a comparative, as well as an empirical, perspective. The contributors to these sections analyze participatory institutions on the basis of empirical models of democracy such as direct democracy, civil society and responsive government and analyze the impact of these models on political behaviour. Part V includes exploratory regional case studies on specific reform initiatives that present descriptive accounts of the policies and politics of these reforms.
Delivering a detailed assessment of democratic reform, this book will of strong interest to students and researchers of political theory, democracy and comparative politics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
Part I Democratic reform and political participation: Two theoretical perspectives
part |2 pages
Part II Democratic reform and political responsiveness
part |2 pages
Part III Democratic reform and direct democracy
part |2 pages
Part IV Democratic reform and civil society
part |2 pages
Part V Democratic reform and local government