Transparency, Protest and Democratic Stability

Infotopia: Unleashing the Democratic Power of Transparency*

In Infotopia, citizens enjoy a wide range of information about the organizations upon which they rely for the satisfaction of their vital interests. The provision of that information is governed by principles of democratic transparency. Democratic transparency both extends and critiques current enthusiasms about transparency. It urges us to conceptualize information politically, as a resource t...

Ethnic Parties and Democratic Stability

Ethnic divisions, according to empirical democratic theory, and commonsense understandings of politics, threaten the survival of democratic institutions. One of the principal mechanisms linking the politicization of ethnic divisions with the destabilization of democracy is the so-called “outbidding effect.” According to theories of ethnic outbidding, the politicization of ethnic divisions inevi...

Ethnic Diversity and Democratic Stability

Transparency and e-Voting: Democratic vs. Commercial Interests

Electronic voting systems are being introduced, and have been introduced, in many countries for a variety of reasons. The introduction of computers into the electoral process can offer several advantages. Among other things it can speed up the process of calculating results, can help voters avoid accidentally spoiling their vote, and can allow voters with special needs to vote in private. Often...

Public Decision Support - Using a Dss to Increase Democratic Transparency

We present a case study in which a decision support method (ADL) was employed by a local government in order to guide and aid decisions on three complicated and politically infected issues which had remained unresolved for many years. The research inquiry was whether a well-defined and openly accessible method would aid a common understanding of the decision problems, and whether people would b...