From Oregon to Switzerland: solving the crisis of democracy by offering more democracy?

Presentation

Many scholars and opinion leaders claim that democracy is in crisis because more and more citizens support populist leaders (like Trump) and ambiguous referendums (like Brexit). Thus, they propose to reduce the channels of citizens' engagement in politics. In contrast, we will argue that such problems can be addressed through citizen empowerment. Inspired by Oregon, in a number of Swiss municipalities and cantons, we let a panel of randomly selected citizens debate an issue of an upcoming referendum and then communicate the results to their fellow citizens so that they can make a more informed decision. It is just one of many possibilities to address the challenge of populism by offering more, not less, democratic channels to ordinary citizens.

Commentary by Giovanni Allegretti, senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra and member of the research team of the UNPOP project. Presents and moderates Sara Araújo, Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and member of the research team of the UNPOP project.

In order to invite all interested people to talk about the themes of populism and emotions, the project's research team UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour, coordinated at the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, organises a series of open conversations. Coordinated by Cristiano Gianolla e Lisete Mónico and institutionally hosted by the Centre for Social Studies and CINEICC - Research Centre in Neuropsychology and Cognitive-Behavioural Intervention - of the University of Coimbra, the UNPOP project is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. (PTDC/CPO-CPO/3850/2020).

Bio note

Nenad Stojanović is SNSF Professor of Political Science at the University of Geneva. His main research topic is democracy, with a focus on political institutions for multicultural societies. In recent years, he has organised several 'deliberative mini-publics' (i.e. citizen assemblies selected by lottery) in various Swiss cantons and cities and collaborated on a similar project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is the author of Dialogue sur les quotas: Penser la représentation dans une démocratie multiculturelle (Presses de Sciences Po 2013; Il Mulino 2014) e Multilingual Democracy: Switzerland and Beyond (ECPR Press 2021).

Location: Salão Brasil