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Upstreaming citizen participation

Representative democracy is not democratic enough. Today, citizens should be able to participate in the political process from the beginning, upstream, and not just at the end with their vote. Interview. Español Português

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Hélène Landemore and Yannis Papadopoulos during the conference “What Democracy?” São Luiz Theater, Lisbon. October 7, 2016. Walter Branco. All rights reserved.

Manuel Serrano: Regarding your discussion at the Lisbon conference with Yannis Papadopoulos on political representation: is representative democracy democratic? Is there a B plan? 

Hélène Landemore: I have come to the conclusion that it is not – not democratic enough. So, we do need a B plan. I do not think that the B plan should be a return to assembly democracy, direct democracy, or mass democracy - the sort of democracy we imagine from Ancient Greece. I do not think this is feasible. The B plan should be a different kind of representative democracy. I call it ‘post-representative’, because I want to make it clear that it is something different.