Hélène Landemore : Bernard Manin and Nadia Urbinati, you both have written books with apparently similar titles, respectively The principles of representative government (1997) and Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy (2006). I would like to organize the discussion around the question of whether representative democracy is an contradiction in terms or the true essence of democracy. I will break down the theme into more manageable questions.
Is the Internet an opportunity for or a threat to democracy? The sure way to a Balkanisation of public opinion or the seedbed of new deliberative practices? Patrice Flichy presents here an important synthesis of the research – including his own – available on the subject. The picture he paints dispels a good few assumptions…
The now widespread call for “change” reflects a resurgence of the still-present republican spirit that has characterized America when it is at its best, which is, alas, not always the case. But which is the best candidate to fulfil this longing?
The idea of promoting democracy, as it has been theorised by American scholars and put into practice by American administration since the 1990s, rests upon a limited conception of democracy and a questionable interpretation of history.
The Middle East has become the theater of a generalized “politics of error.” Particularly since 9/11, errors of comprehension have intertwined with errors of calculation in ways that destabilize the regional system and make for an even more uncertain future.