Abstract

When does democracy work well for nearly all citizens? What do citizens need to know to be good citizens and to make sure that their interests and concerns are taken into account? How much inequality in resources, such as money and information, is compatible with equality in political representation? How is information and representation shaped by the internet? Are there new institutional remedies to deal with failures of democratic representation? This workshop aims to address these fundamental questions about the functioning of twenty-first century democracy, as numerous countries face populist challenges to existing representative institutions and grapple with the role of social media and the internet in mass politics. In particular, it will probe the relationship between political information and its distribution throughout the political society and the quality of democracy and the distribution of political power. Special attention will be paid to the interaction between the articulation of clear and plausible principles of democracy and the development of empirical research. This is based on the belief that a closer dialogue between political philosophy and empirical or positive social science research is needed to gain deeper insights, more clearly speak to public debates, and identify neglected areas for future research.

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This event is funded by a French government subsidy managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche under the framework of the investissements d'avenir programme reference ANR-17-EURE-0010.

Reference

Knowledge, Power, and the Quest for Political Equality, December 10–12, 2020, room Online Conference.