Saving Democracy

Democracy is in crisis. Is there still time to save it? Democracies face external threat from aggressive authoritarian states. Internally, citizens have grown increasingly distrustful of politicians and more cynical about national and global governance institutions. The time is ripe for democracy to renew itself. This text offers a state-of-the art overview of democratic innovations today, moving beyond cries of the 'death' or 'end' of democracy to instead offer a range of practical solutions for how to save it and restore faith in democratic practice. 'Old' democratic power, represented by existing structures, is being challenged. 'New' power involves collaboration and rapid feedback loops, as well as increased citizen participation. The future of democracy, the authors demonstrate, will be about findings ways of melding 'old' and 'new' power practices. Offering a broad and accessible survey of what different forms of democracy and democratic innovations look like today, and how they can develop in future, Saving Democracy shows us the potential for transformation across the entire democratic process. Avoiding a reductive focus on simply getting citizens more involved in decision-making, this book uniquely argues for the importance of refining and monitoring how democratic decisions are made and followed through.

Mark Evans is Director of Democracy 2025 and Professor of Governance at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, Australia. He has played an international role in supporting changes to governance practices, acted as a senior policy advisor, and has managed research and evaluation projects for the European Union, United Nations and the World Bank. Gerry Stoker is Professor of Governance at the University of Southampton, UK.

1. Why 'saving' democracy? 2. Can democracy be saved? Part 1: Interventions at the input stage to enable critical citizenship 3. Building participatory governance systems 4. Direct democracy 5. Deliberative democracy 6. Design-led digital democracy Part 2: Interventions at the throughput stage to improve the quality and integrity of politics 7. Reforming elected assemblies 8. Cleaning-up politics 9. Embedding experts and evidence in democratic governance 10. Old and new media - power with responsibility Part 3: Interventions at the output stage to improve the capacity of politics to deliver quality services and policy outcomes 11. Improving the public service experience: the search for public value 12. Representing democracy and crisis management 13. Future proofing democracy 14. In conclusion - restoring and strengthening the 'protective' power of democracy