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    Triumph, deficit or contestation? : deepening the 'deepening democracy' debate

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    Wp264.pdf (265.9Kb)
    Date
    2006
    Author
    Gaventa, John
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    Abstract
    Around the world concepts and constructions of democracy are under contestation. Some analysts see the spread of democratic institutional designs as evidence of democracy’s triumph. Others – across both north and south – point to growing democratic deficits, and how they threaten democratic legitimacy. Following a review of these debates, this paper focuses on emerging debates within what is often referred to as the ‘deepening democracy’ field, a school of thinking that focuses on the political project of developing and sustaining more substantive and empowered citizen participation in the democratic process than is often found in representative democracy alone. Within this ‘school’, the paper explores four broad approaches – ‘civil society’ democracy, participatory democracy, deliberative democracy and empowered participatory governance – and how they differ from one another as well as from ‘thinner’ forms of democracy associated with liberal and neoliberal thinking. The paper argues that democracy-building is an ongoing process of struggle and contestation rather than the adoption of a standard institutional design, and poses a series of challenges which future conceptual and practical work on deepening democracy may need to address. Keywords: democracy, governance, participation, deliberation, citizenship, rights, inclusion, civil society
    URI
    https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/4064
    Citation
    Gaventa, J. (2006) Triumph, deficit or contestation? : deepening the 'deepening democracy' debate. Working paper series, 264. Brighton: IDS.
    Is part of series
    IDS working papers;264
    Library catalogue entry
    http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=157196
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    Institute of Development Studies
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    http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/IDSOpenDocsStandardTermsOfUse.pdf
    Collections
    • IDS Research [1599]
    • Citizenship, Participation and Accountability (DRC) [346]

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