POL30640

This is a substantively revised module that used to be titled ‘Deliberative mini-publics’. The primary focus remains on DMPs, but the setting has changed to reflect growing concerns about the future of democracy. Political science is replete with studies about the crisis of democracy: much of the emphasis is on democratic ‘erosion’ and ‘backsliding’, on ‘autocratization’ and the emergence of ‘illiberal’ regimes. What is often forgotten or underestimated is the degree to which democracies can and do innovate, to varying degrees showing their resilience.

This module starts from that perspective, introducing students to another significant emerging field of studies, on the phenomenon of democratic innovations. We start by reviewing the main forms of democratic innovation before proceeding to focus on the most prominent of these innovations – deliberative mini-publics (DMPs), which are fast becoming an ever more notable feature of contemporary democracies. Having first emerged in the latter part of the 20th century, they started to achieve prominence in the first decade of this century (starting with the British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly in 2005). Their use has mushroomed in the past few years, not least as shown by the extensive use of DMPs between 2012-23. An influential OECD report records hundreds of examples of DMPs over the past few decades.

The primary purpose of this module is to examine what they are, how they vary, their strengths and weaknesses, and what the might contribute to the resilience of democratic systems. The content of the module will include the following key themes: threats to democracy; democratic innovations with a particular focus on citizen-centred reforms; defining DMPs and how they vary; where DMPs fit within deliberative democracy more generally; the place of DMPs within the existing system representative democracy; the potential of deliberative processes to help save democracy.