Democratic innovations beyond the deliberative paradigm: a re-conceptualization based on Luhmann’s systems theory
Publication date
2024-04-22
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Series or journal
Democratization
ISSN
Periodical volume
31
Periodical issue
8
First page
1695
Last page
1718
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
The current research on deliberative-participatory democratic innovations conducted by state administration agencies exhibits empirical eclecticism and is dominated by a deliberative paradigm. However, this paradigm tends to conflate normative prescription with analytical description. In contrast, this article proposes a comprehensive re-conceptualization of such innovations, drawing from Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. It outlines the specific problem these innovations address (function), how they operate in tackling this problem (functioning) and the problems they inevitably raise (dysfunctions). In addition, my re-conceptualization retains the possibility to critically compare these (and other) experiments regarding their capability to address emerging challenges within the modern democratic political system.
Description
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Version
Published version
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