Hélène Landemore: Open Democracy (PPE Colloquium)

In this colloquium, Hélène Landemore (Yale) will present her new book, Open Democracy. It describes a new paradigm of democracy that follows the ideal of “representing and being represented in turn.” Instead of focusing on elections and representative government, Open Democracy argues for a form of democracy in which power is genuinely accessible to ordinary citizens.

Open Democracy recommends centering political institutions around the “open mini-public”—a large, jury-like body of randomly selected citizens gathered to define laws and policies for the polity, in connection with the larger public. Landemore also defends five institutional principles as the foundations of an open democracy: participatory rights, deliberation, the majoritarian principle, democratic representation, and transparency.

Open Democracy demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, today more than ever, urgently needed.

Hélène Landemore

Hélène Landemore is full professor of political science at Yale University. She is the author of Democratic Reason (Princeton) and Hume. She works on democratic theory, Enlightenment thinkers, political epistemology, constitutional theory, and the philosophy of social sciences.

Registration for after-colloquium gathering

Unfortunately, according to current regulation we cannot invite you to a “borrel” at the faculty after the colloquium. If you are interested in participating in a Corona-conform informal gathering after the event, please email l.m.herzog rug.nl by September 30th, 2021.