Libsyn Directory

2.5 If you could change one thing about democracy what would it be?

Release Date: 04/17/2017

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I talk with Anouch Toranian, the Deputy Mayor of Paris, Yves Dejaeghere, the Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy, Europe and Claudia Chwalisz, leader of innovation in citizen engagement with the OECD about the design and establishment of the Paris Citizens' Assembly.

3.8 New Zealand's Electoral System with Therese Arseneau

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

I'm speaking with Therese Arseneau about the introduction of a mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system. Therese talks about the background to the referendum which led to the introduction of MMP in New Zealand [1:20], how voters view the impact of MMP [13:20], the reality of MMP and coalition governments [21:20], the impact of MMP on women's representation [28:10], its wider impact [34:00] and Maori representation generally and the impact of MMP [39:30].

3.7 Electoral systems in Australia with Antony Green

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I’m talking with Antony Green about the Australian electoral system and Vote Compass, a tool which allows voters to explore how their views align with the major parties.

3.6 Reforming democracy, democratic legitimacy and majority bonuses with Dr Camille Bedock

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I’m talking with Dr Camille Bedock about her book Reforming Democracy: Institutional engineering in Western Europe, 1990 - 2010 and also about her more recent research with Sophie Panel on citizen conceptions of how democratic their democracy is and with Nicolas Sauger on how electoral systems with majority bonuses affect electoral competition.

3.5 Electoral Integrity with Pippa Norris

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I am speaking with Professor Pippa Norris about her work on electoral integrity.

Bonus Ep10 Deliberation Culture Context - John Dryzek

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I’m speaking with Professor John Dryzek about his ARC Laureate Fellowship, his reflections on the Conference generally, how we might establish global deliberative processes and directions for future research in this area.

Bonus Ep9 Deliberation Culture Context - Quinlan Bowman

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I’m speaking with Dr Quinlan Bowman about his reflections on the Conference Deliberation, Culture and Context.

Bonus Ep8 Deliberation Culture Context - John Parkinson

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this episode, I’m speaking with Professor John Parkinson, who is currently a Professor of Social and Political Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.

Bonus Ep7 Deliberation Culture Context - Ian O'Flynn

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In this bonus episode I’m speaking with Dr Ian O'Flynn about his work on deliberation in divided societies.

Bonus Ep6 Deliberation Culture Context - Stephanie Lawson

Real Democracy Now! a podcast

In bonus episode 6 I’m speaking with Professor Stephanie Lawson, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the Macquarie University about her paper ‘Consensus Politics and Democracy in the Pacific Islands: A Critique’ which she presented at the Deliberation, Culture and Context conference.

More Episodes

I ask all of my guests two questions:

what for them is the essence of a real democracy? and
if they could change one thing about our system of democracy what would it be?

In episode 1.9 we heard from a number of the guests I interviewed in Season 1 (about deliberative mini-publics) on their view of the essence of a real democracy. Today we hear from guests from Season 1 and 2 on the one change they would make to our system of democracy.

I’ve found the answers people have given to this question fascinating. Sometimes people want changes that directly relate to their area of interest and other things they identify an important change in a completely different part of our democratic system.

In this episode, we hear from

Adam Cronkright from Democracy in Practice. I interviewed Adam in episode 1.12 about the work of Democracy in Practice in schools in Bolivia.
Associate Professor Caroline Lee. Caroline was part of episode 1.19 where we considered different critiques of deliberative mini-publics.
Associate Professor Daniel Pemstein was part of episode 2.3 about his work on the Varieties of Democracy Project and the Unified Democracy Scores.
Professor Carson was my first guest in episode 1.1 where she explained the basics about deliberative mini-publics.
Professor Graham Smith who has been part of a couple of episodes now - episode 1.8 where he talked about the UK Citizens’ Assemblies and episode1.18 where he outlined his approach to evaluating deliberative mini-publics.
Professor Cristina La Font was also part of episode 1.19 where she explained her critique about some uses of deliberative mini-publics.
Professor Paul Cartledge was our first guest in Season 2 where he took us through a potted history of Ancient Greek democracy. and
Associate Professor Genevieve Fuji Johnson was one of the guests on episode 1.19 critiquing deliberative mini-publics.

In next week’s episode, I speak with Jean-Paul Gagnon about his work on ‘democracy with adjectives’. So far Jean-Paul has identified over 1400 adjectives used to describe democracy. He also tells us about a virtual ‘city of democracy’ he is developing based on this work. I hope you’ll join me then.

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