TY - JOUR
T1 - Unravelling the new plebiscitary democracy
T2 - Towards a research agenda
AU - Hendriks, Frank
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author 2020. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/3/20
Y1 - 2020/3/20
N2 - Pushed by technological, cultural and related political drivers, a 'new plebiscitary democracy' is emerging which challenges established electoral democracy as well as variants of deliberative democracy. The new plebiscitary democracy reinvents and radicalizes longer-existing methods (initiative, referendum, recall, primary, petition, poll) with new tools and applications (mostly digital). It comes with a comparatively thin conceptualization of democracy, invoking the bare notion of a demos whose aggregated will is to steer actors and issues in public governance in a straight majoritarian way. In addition to unravelling the reinvented logic of plebiscitary democracy in conceptual terms, this article fleshes out an empirically informed matrix of emerging formats, distinguishing between votations that are 'political-leader' and 'public-issue' oriented on the one hand, and 'inside-out' and 'outside-in' initiated on the other hand. Relatedly, it proposes an agenda for systematic research into the various guises, drivers and implications of the new plebiscitary democracy. Finally, it reflects on possible objections to the argumentation.
AB - Pushed by technological, cultural and related political drivers, a 'new plebiscitary democracy' is emerging which challenges established electoral democracy as well as variants of deliberative democracy. The new plebiscitary democracy reinvents and radicalizes longer-existing methods (initiative, referendum, recall, primary, petition, poll) with new tools and applications (mostly digital). It comes with a comparatively thin conceptualization of democracy, invoking the bare notion of a demos whose aggregated will is to steer actors and issues in public governance in a straight majoritarian way. In addition to unravelling the reinvented logic of plebiscitary democracy in conceptual terms, this article fleshes out an empirically informed matrix of emerging formats, distinguishing between votations that are 'political-leader' and 'public-issue' oriented on the one hand, and 'inside-out' and 'outside-in' initiated on the other hand. Relatedly, it proposes an agenda for systematic research into the various guises, drivers and implications of the new plebiscitary democracy. Finally, it reflects on possible objections to the argumentation.
KW - democratic transformation
KW - digital democracy
KW - electronic voting
KW - new plebiscitary democracy
KW - populism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082427313&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/gov.2020.4
DO - 10.1017/gov.2020.4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082427313
SP - 1
EP - 25
JO - Government and Opposition
JF - Government and Opposition
SN - 0017-257X
ER -