Hélène Landemore

"To the Ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in a public space and arguing based on an agenda set by a randomly selected assembly of 500 other citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings in Northern Europe a few centuries later, it meant gathering every summer in a large field, a place where they held their own annual "parliament," and similarly talking things through until they got to relatively consensual decisions about the common's fate. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern Parliaments are intimidating buildings that are much harder to access for ordinary citizens-quite literally. They are typically gated and guarded, and it often feels as if only certain types of people-people with the right suit, accent, bank account, connections, even last names-are welcome to enter them. In Open Democracy, Landemore revitalizes the model of success from ancient open democracies alongside the problems of the present-day representative democracies in order to get to the heart of the issues which contemporary democratic societies are dealing with today. Something has been lost between the two, Landemore argues: accessibility; openness to the ordinary man and woman. Landemore believes the move to "representative" democracy, a mediated form of democracy seen as unavoidable in mass, commercial societies, also became a move towards democratic closure, and exclusivity. Open Democracy asks how can we recover the openness of ancient democracies in today's world, and would it help the crisis of democracy? In diagnosing what is wrong with representative democracy, Landemore offers a normative alternative and strategy-one that is more true to the democratic ideal of "government of the people, by the people, for the people." This alternative conception (open democracy) is one Landemore believes can be used to imagine and design more participatory, responsive, accountable, and smarter institutions, thereby strengthening our democracies along with on the whole, our societies"--

Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century

Open Democracy

Jon Elster

Thomas Pradeu

Jacques Dubucs

Philippe de Rouilhan

Max Kistler

Marion Vorms

Daniel Andler

Paul Egre

Michaël Esfeld

Élodie Giroux

Pascal Ludwig

Pour en présenter les développements récents, il couvre aussi bien les questions relevant de la philosophie générale de l’activité scientifique (qu’est-ce qu’une explication scientifique ? l’unité des sciences est-elle un mythe ou un idéal ?...) que celles portant sur l’épistémologie des sciences particulières (de quoi les mathématiques sont-elles l’étude ? l’économie est-elle une science empirique comme les autres ?...). Ce précis constitue, pour les étudiants de Licence 3 et de Master en philosophie et en sciences, un support d’approfondissement de leurs cours mais aussi de préparation aux épreuves d’épistémologie des CAPES scientifiques. Il sera également utile aux doctorants et aux chercheurs confirmés qui souhaitent élargir ou actualiser leur savoir dans ce domaine.

Précis de philosophie des sciences

Rob Reich

Lucy Bernholz

"One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over-and upending-nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship-all transformed by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. Digital Technology and Democratic Theory explores a particularly unsettling and rapidly evolving facet of our new digital lives: transformations that affect our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, scholars from multiple disciplines (computer science, philosophy, political science, economics, history, and media and communications/journalism) wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. The contributors consider what democratic theory-broadly defined as normative theorizing about the values and institutional design of democracy-can bring to the practice of digital technologies. From the connectivity and transmission of information that has inspired positive change through movements such as the Arab Spring and #MeToo to the nefarious spread of distrust and outright disruption in democratic processes, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing not just individual states, but democracy as a philosophy and institution"--

Digital Technology and Democratic Theory

Jason Brennan

In this accessible book, leading scholars Jason Brennan and Hélène Landemore ask, what good is democracy and is there any better alternative? Brennan argues that democracy suffers from built-in systematic flaws. There is no way to fix these flaws--we can only contain them, or jettison democracy for a better system of representative government. Landemore argues that our problem is that we have not been using real democracy. Real democracy--in which citizensexercise more genuine power--can overcome the problems we see in modern republican governments. The book concludes with each author responding to the other's arguments, ultimately helping readers see how their views of justice depend in part on how they think democracy functions.

Do We Need More Or Less?

Debating Democracy

One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over—and upending—nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. Digital Technology and Democratic Theory looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, this book brings together contributions by scholars from multiple disciplines to wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. As expectations have whiplashed—from Twitter optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring to Facebook pessimism in the wake of the 2016 US election—the time is ripe for a more sober and long-term assessment. How should we take stock of digital technologies and their promise and peril for reshaping democratic societies and institutions? To answer, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing democracy as a philosophy and an institution.

Individual decision making can often be wrong due to misinformation, impulses, or biases. Collective decision making, on the other hand, can be surprisingly accurate. In Democratic Reason, Hélène Landemore demonstrates that the very factors behind the superiority of collective decision making add up to a strong case for democracy. She shows that the processes and procedures of democratic decision making form a cognitive system that ensures that decisions taken by the many are more likely to be right than decisions taken by the few. Democracy as a form of government is therefore valuable not only because it is legitimate and just, but also because it is smart. Landemore considers how the argument plays out with respect to two main mechanisms of democratic politics: inclusive deliberation and majority rule. In deliberative settings, the truth-tracking properties of deliberation are enhanced more by inclusiveness than by individual competence. Landemore explores this idea in the contexts of representative democracy and the selection of representatives. She also discusses several models for the "wisdom of crowds" channeled by majority rule, examining the trade-offs between inclusiveness and individual competence in voting. When inclusive deliberation and majority rule are combined, they beat less inclusive methods, in which one person or a small group decide. Democratic Reason thus establishes the superiority of democracy as a way of making decisions for the common good.

Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many

Democratic Reason

The contributors to this volume discuss and for the most part challenge whether many minds can be wiser than one.

Hélène Landemore

Books

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