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Essays

The Multiple Meanings of Revolution

Upheaval, crisis and imponderables

by Jean-Clément Martin & translated by Eric Rosencrantz, 13 May

Though the age of historic upheavals and major political crises seemed to be over, the word “revolution” has made a recent comeback in Georgia, in the Ukraine and in the “Arab Springs” of 2011. (...)

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Essays

With or Without the Chinese People?

Intellectual Representations of Social Instability in early 21^st century China

by Emilie Frenkiel, 8 April

How do Chinese intellectuals construe social instability? This essay maps out the debate on democracy in early 21st century China and explains how, despite diverse viewpoints, widespread elitist (...)

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Essays

Mobile Phones and Politics in China

From Texting to Mobilizing

by Jun Liu, 28 March

The penetration of mobile phones in Chinese daily life has made collective actions easier to organize and challenged government censorship. Highlighting this new form of communication, the (...)

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Reviews

Choosing Our Leaders

About : Jean-Claude Monod, Qu’est-ce qu’un chef en démocratie ? Politiques du charisme, Seuil.

by Jean-Yves Pranchère, 11 February

Democracies cannot do without leaders, according to Jean-Claude Monod, as they guarantee our freedom against the domination of economic powers. Even so, we must learn to choose our leaders and to (...)

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Dossiers

Debate, Democracy and the Public Sphere

by Lucie Campos, 8 January

In our second winter selection of reviews and essays, Books & Ideas takes a look back at a few important articles published over the last year on the current developments and trends affecting (...)

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Essays

The Internet and its Democratic Virtues

by Dominique Cardon & translated by John Zvesper, 8 November 2012

What are the political characteristics of the internet revolution? Plunging into “internet democracy,” Dominique Cardon explores the tensions running through this vast network of networks, (...)

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Reviews

Billionaires: Oligarchy within Democracy?

About: Jeffrey A. Winters, Oligarchy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011

by Peter Hägel, 26 October 2012

Political scientist Jeffrey Winters argues that oligarchy is timeless, but varying in its forms. For him, the political power of billionaires in democracies represents a transformation towards (...)

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Dossiers

Oiling the Wheels of Democracy

Democratic Techniques and Innovations

by Emilie Frenkiel, 13 August 2012

How to renew the currently dwindling support for democratic governance? To the minds of theorists and historians, whether advocating going back to classical political traditions like (...)

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Essays

Could Random Selection and Deliberative Democracy Revitalize Politics in the 21^st Century?

by Yves Sintomer & translated by John Zvesper, 6 June 2012

The practice of using representative samples in decision making in contemporary political regimes creates an opening for re-establishing sortition (making decisions or filling offices by drawing (...)

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Reviews

Envisaging the Future of Republicanism in France

About: T. Ménissier, La liberté des contemporains. Pourquoi il faut rénover la république, P.U. Grenoble, 2011

by Sophie Guérard de la Tour, 17 May 2012

To Thierry Ménissier, France’s republicanism is not a thing of the past. In fact, the republican regime is still the best guarantee of liberty in France, but only if it is overhauled so that it (...)

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Essays

Is There a Dictatorship in the E.U.?

by Andrew Arato, 11 May 2012

The Orban government has enacted sweeping changes that have raised the specter of autocracy in Hungary: is the European Union about to have a dictatorship among its member states? For Andrew (...)

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Essays

J14 in Tel-Aviv

A Different Kind of Protest Movement?

by Sylvaine Bulle & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 28 February 2012

Are the demands of indignados of all countries fundamentally the same, or does each movement have its distinctive style? For Sylvaine Bulle, Israel’s J14 movement must be understood as a critique (...)

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Campaigning for Ideas

Open Data As a Key to Citizen Empowerment

An Interview with Dominique Cardon, sociologist

by Ivan Jablonka & Pauline Peretz & translated by John Zvesper, 20 January 2012

A citizen, if informed, is active and attentive. In a transparent democracy, public authorities are truly accountable to their voters and citizens trust their leaders. In this interview, (...)

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Campaigning for Ideas

Are we Represented?

An interview with Loïc Blondiaux

by Emilie Frenkiel & Ivan Jablonka & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 6 January 2012

The indignados movement signals people’s current dissatisfaction as regards political representation. Though pessimistic as to the political outlets of that mobilization, French political (...)

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Essays

The Media Revolution and Public Debate

by Charles Girard & translated by Susannah Dale, 3 January 2012

In a democratic regime, do new media represent a threat or a step forward for the press? Charles Girard examines the renewal of the journalistic profession and its impact on democratic debate. (...)

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Dossiers

Democracy: Bridging the Representation Gap

by Emilie Frenkiel, 28 December 2011

The current world-wide demand for “real” democracy as embodied in the Indignados (15-M) movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement reiterates long-lasting frustrations as regards representative (...)

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Dossiers

Press and Democracy

by Emilie Frenkiel & Jeanne Moisand, 13 December 2011

The media industry has undergone dramatic changes in its technologies and business models. To help us understand the effects of these changes on democracy, Books and Ideas takes the discussion (...)

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Essays

Doing Away With Presidential Elections

by Pierre Brunet & Arnaud Le Pillouer & translated by Susannah Dale, 1 December 2011

The election of the President of the French Republic by universal suffrage is said to represent an undeniable step forward for democracy, in that it enables the people to directly choose a leader (...)

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Essays

The Opacity of Consensus

Decision-making at the Council of the European Union

by Stéphanie Novak & translated by Pascale Torracinta, 24 November 2011

At the Council of the European Union, decisions are usually made by consensus. Does this mean that all the countries are of one mind? In fact, disagreements are often concealed, since it is not (...)

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Essays

A Reflection on Populism

by Pierre Rosanvallon, 10 November 2011

As a counterbalance to the simplistic temptations of the populism that is currently spreading within European democracies, Pierre Rosanvallon invites us to complicate our notion of democracy and (...)

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Reviews

Who Rules the Global Rule Makers?

About: T. Büthe & Walter Mattli, The New Global Rulers; Vibert, Democracy and Dissent.

by Martin Albrow, 3 November 2011

Thirty years of misguided deregulation have brought us the 2008 collapse. Two books look at how we should create new rules democratically. While adopting widely different perspectives, both beg (...)

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Dossiers

European Citizenship on the March

by Florent Guénard, 24 October 2011

At a time when Europe is equated with sovereign debt and political powerlessness, one should not forget that the foundations for a European citizenship have already been laid. Its potential for (...)

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Essays

Republican Reflections on the 15-M Movement

by Philip Pettit, 20 September 2011

In its criticism of the democratic deficit in Spain, has the 15M movement (initiated 15 May 2011 in Spain) challenged Philip Pettit’s theory of republicanism which gave its intellectual authority (...)

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Reviews

Moderate Moderns

About: D. Mahoney, The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order, ISI Books

by John Zvesper, 15 July 2011

Who are the enemies of liberal democracy? Daniel Mahoney identifies them as modern totalitarians of the Left and the Right, but also as its immoderate friends: those who unwisely try to undermine (...)

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Essays

Sprouts of Democracy in Chinese History

by Pierre-Etienne Will, 30 May 2011

In this article derived from a conference given at Princeton University in November 2008, Pierre-Etienne Will discards culturalist arguments justifying the absence of a democratic regime in China (...)

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Reviews

Obama as Philosopher

About: J. Kloppenberg, Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition, Princeton University Press

by Michael C. Behrent, 11 May 2011

Historian James Kloppenberg suggests that Obama deserves a place in the pantheon of American political thinkers. The president’s taste for reconciliation and overcoming of partisanship supposedly (...)

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Reviews

The Reception of John Stuart Mill in France

About: John Stuart Mill, Considérations sur le gouvernement représentatif, Gallimard.

by Vincent Guillin & Djamel Souafa & translated by Arthur Goldhammer, 9 May 2011

How did the thought of John Stuart Mill cross the English Channel? Vincent Guillin and Djamel Souafa analyze the reception of Considerations on Representative Government in Second Empire France (...)

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Reviews

Doing Democracy Differently

About: P. Chatterjee, Politique des gouvernés, Amsterdam.

by Pierre Sauvêtre & translated by John Zvesper, 1 April 2011

Partha Chatterjee looks at the political mobilization of the governed in former colonies, lacking access to the modes of traditional citizenship. He argues that these people are not powerless and (...)

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Reviews

Testing Biopolitics against World Population Growth

About: M. Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population, Harvard University Press, 2008.

by Paul-André Rosental, 21 March 2011

The fear of a global demographic explosion, starting in the early 20th century, has prompted birth-control policies. According to Matthew Connelly, the will of men in the North to impact the (...)

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Essays

The Social State and Globalization

by Jean-Fabien Spitz & translated by Susan Emanuel, 11 February 2011

Does the globalization of the economy inevitably imply a lowering of our social protections? As Jean-Fabien Spitz shows, this would mean considering them as a mere luxury that we must give up (...)

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Essays

Allotment and Democracy in Ancient Greece

by Paul Demont, 13 December 2010

Contrary to the view generally accepted among historians of antiquity on the authority of Plato and Aristotle, allotment does not strictly go hand in hand with democracy. According to Paul (...)

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Essays

The crisis of representation in Great-Britain

by Florence Faucher-King & translated by Pascale Torracinta, 17 November 2010

The scandal over expenses and the recent revelations about the corruption of former Labour MPs have seriously weakened the legitimacy of British political leadership. Florence Faucher-King (...)

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Reviews

China and its Democratic Fiction

About : S. Veg, Fictions du pouvoir chinois, Éditions de l’EHESS.

by Emilie Frenkiel, 4 December 2009

What can literature teach us about China’s experience of democracy in the twentieth century? In an ambitious work, Sebastian Veg explores the links between fiction and democracy in his search for (...)

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Essays

For an Ecological Democracy

by Dominique Bourg & Kerry Whiteside, 1 September 2009

Our consumption never stops increasing and the planet is bled dry. Relying on technological progress for our salvation is an illusion. For the solution is political: We must seek to refound our (...)

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Essays

Political change and democracy in China

An interview with Wang Shaoguang

by Emilie Frenkiel, 15 July 2009

Can Western political concepts accurately describe the Chinese political regime? In this interview, Wang Shaoguang defines democracy as “a combination of responsibility, responsiveness, and (...)

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Reviews

The Politics of Inequality

About: Larry M. Bartels, Unequal Democracy, Princeton University Press.

by Stephen W. Sawyer, 12 January 2009

Forty years of Republican dominance of American presidential politics have led to an unprecedented rise in economic inequality. In his latest book, Larry Bartels argues that this politics of (...)

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Reviews

The Lost Cause of Democracy

About: S. Žižek, In Defense of Lost Causes , Verso.

by Jérôme Melançon, 18 December 2008

Žižek strongly advocates an overturning of capitalism through a daily revolution; the latter can only become possible if our perception of society and its constructs can be changed to achieve a (...)

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Reviews

Making Urban Democracy Work

by Eugene McCann, 5 December 2008

In his latest work, Purcell concerns himself with democracy applied to urban life. Democracy necessitates the interaction of citizens’ activisms in an agonistic fashion. The author strongly (...)

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Essays

When the lottery is fairer than rational choice

An interview with Jon Elster

by Florent Guénard & Hélène Landemore, 26 November 2008

Jon Elster explains why he has gradually distanced himself from rational choice theories to favour chance and the luck of the draw, less liable to be unjust when deliberation is plainly (...)

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Essays

Is There a Reawakening of American Democracy?

An interview with Eric Foner

by Nicolas Delalande, 28 October 2008

While the presidential campaign is coming to an end, Eric Foner, one of the most prominent American historians, analyses the changes of American democracy and explains why this election could (...)

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