Hélène Landemore
Criticism of electoral democracySortition and Citizen’s AssemblyCognitive Diversity"Open Democracy"
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Hélène Landemore | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976 |
| Nationality | French, American |
| Education | Harvard University, PhD |
| Occupation(s) | Researcher, political scientist |
| Employer | Yale University (since 2009) |
| Known for | Open Democracy, Cognitive Diversity |
| Website | https://www.helenelandemore.com/ |
Hélène Landemore is Professor of Political Science at Yale University.[1] She has a PhD from Harvard University.[1] Her subfield is political theory and she is known for her works on democratic theory.[2][3][4][5]
Biography[edit]
After a childhood spent in Normandy, Landemore began higher studies in Paris at the age of 18.[5] She joined the École Normale and Sciences Po Paris. In 2008 she received a Ph.D. from Harvard University with a thesis on the idea of collective intelligence applied to the justification of democracy.[6]
Public life[edit]
She researched the 2010 participatory constituent process in Iceland and directly observed the 2019-20 French’s Citizen Convention for Climate.[7][8] In September 2022 she was appointed to the governance committee of the French Citizens' Convention on end of life.[9] She regularly presents her ideas and proposals in French[7][10][11][12] and American newspapers.[5][13]
Theories[edit]
Hélène Landemore’s research focuses on deliberative democracy and collective intelligence.[5]
Criticism of electoral democracy[edit]
Like David Van Reybrouck and Brett Hennig, she observes that elections are more aristocratic than democratic, as they empower a tiny social elite.[12] Elected parliaments are never representative of the entire population. In particular, women, working-class people, and social minorities are systematically underrepresented.
Money provided by rich donors to political campaigns have an important impact on electoral politics, particularly in the United States of America.[14] As a result, the United States more closely resembles a plutocracy, in which the economic elite has more influence on politics than the vast majority of the population.[15]
Sortition and Citizen’s Assembly[edit]
Hélène Landemore sees a new institution as the "key" to a new form of democracy. She calls it the "open mini-public". It is a citizen’s assembly of a few hundreds of people chosen by lot.[12]
Cognitive Diversity[edit]
The diversity of the members of an assembly is a strength for deliberation.[16] Reflection will be more rich and nuanced if it involves different perspectives, life experiences, and knowledge. That is why an assembly chosen by lot is generally preferable to an assembly of experts. We cannot predict in advance what knowledge and experiences will be useful to face a political problem. Reason then commands that we choose maximum diversity over the specialized ability.[16]
It is an epistemic and probabilist argument in favour of democratic inclusion and sortition.
"Open Democracy"[edit]
Hélène Landemore proposes a new paradigm, "Open Democracy," which rests on five principles:[17]
- Participation rights: the rights of expression and association, to which are added the rights of petition and citizen’s initiative. It shall enable the convocation of a referendum on a law voted by the Parliament.
- Deliberation: the decisions must come from discussion between equal citizens. The floor must not be monopolized by few gifted orators.
- Majoritarian principle: instead of super-majorities rules, which produce blocking minorities. The vote must integrate new and fairer methods, such as the Majority Judgment.
- Democratic representation: thanks to sortition and, to a lesser extent, voluntary participation.
- Transparency: of the process and of the results of the deliberations, in real-time or afterwards. Transparency is a means of control, which requires that information be made public and legible to citizens.
Works[edit]
Books in English[edit]
Hélène Landemore, Jon Elster et al. Edited volume: Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Hélène Landemore, Democratic reason: Politics, collective intelligence, and the rule of the many, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2017.
Hélène Landemore, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2020.
Hélène Landemore, Jason Brennan. Debating Democracy: Do We Need More or Less?, Oxford University Press, 2021.
Lucy Bernholz, Hélène Landemore, and Rob Reich. Edited volume: Digital Technology and Democratic Theory, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2021.
Books in French[edit]
Hélène Landemore, Hume. Probabilité et choix raisonnable, Paris, PUF, 2004.
References[edit]
- ^ a b "About". Hélène Landemore. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ^ Hurst, Alexander (2020-02-18). "France Turns to Citizen-Legislators to Craft Climate Reforms". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ^ Cohen, Patricia (2011-06-14). "Reason Seen More as Weapon Than Path to Truth (Published 2011)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ^ "There Are Better Ways to Do Democracy". Bloomberg.com. 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ^ a b c d Heller, Nathan. "Politics Without Politicians". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ^ "Hélène Landemore | Department of Political Science". politicalscience.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ a b "" La Convention citoyenne pour le climat pourrait préfigurer une nouvelle forme de démocratie "". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2020-02-10. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ Andéol Lê Quan Phong (2020-06-23). "Sauver le climat, renouveler la démocratie : l'épopée de la Convention citoyenne pour le climat". lvsl.fr - Tout reconstruire, tout réinventer (in French). Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ Cummings, Mike (2022-11-29). "Yale's Landemore helps guide France's unique citizens' convention". YaleNews. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
- ^ "Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat : peut-on réconcilier les citoyens avec leurs institutions ?". France Culture (in French). Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ "Hélène Landemore : " Être capable de définir les termes d'un débat, c'est la moitié du pouvoir "". L'Humanité (in French). 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ a b c "Hélène Landemore : " Le vrai pouvoir démocratique va bien au-delà de la possibilité de choisir ses gouvernants "". L'Humanité (in French). 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ Klein, Ezra (2021-02-23). "Opinion | A Radical Proposal for True Democracy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ^ "Pas vraiment une démocratie, de moins en moins une république. La grande fatigue d'un système rongé par l'argent et trop verrouillé au niveau constitutionnel, par Hélène Landemore". tnova.fr. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
- ^ Gilens, Martin; Page, Benjamin I. (September 2014). "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens". Perspectives on Politics. 12 (3): 564–581. doi:10.1017/S1537592714001595. ISSN 1537-5927.
- ^ a b Landemore, Hélène (2013-05-01). "Deliberation, cognitive diversity, and democratic inclusiveness: an epistemic argument for the random selection of representatives". Synthese. 190 (7): 1209–1231. doi:10.1007/s11229-012-0062-6. ISSN 1573-0964. S2CID 21572876.
- ^ Landemore, Hélène (2020). Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691181998.
External links[edit]
- Hélène Landemore publications indexed by Google Scholar
- Official website
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Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century Paperback – 1 July 2022
by Hélène Landemore (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
How a new model of democracy that opens up power to ordinary citizens could strengthen inclusiveness, responsiveness, and accountability in modern societies
To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeting every summer in a field to discuss issues until consensus was reached. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern parliaments are gated and guarded, and it seems as if only certain people ― with the right suit, accent, wealth, and connections―are welcome. Diagnosing what is wrong with representative government and aiming to recover some of the lost openness of ancient democracies, Open Democracy presents a new paradigm of democracy in which power is genuinely accessible to ordinary citizens.
Hélène Landemore favours the ideal of 'representing and being represented in turn”'over direct-democracy approaches. Supporting a fresh nonelectoral understanding of democratic representation, Landemore 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. She 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.
'Open Democracy envisions what true government by mass leadership could look like.' ― Nathan Heller, New Yorker
'A great defence of both sortition and deliberation as complements to representative democracy.' – Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Open Magazine
'A bold exploration of how we can move beyond a purely electoral conception of democratic representation. Using normative democratic theory and real-world examples of innovations in citizen representation, Hélène Landemore argues for a vision of democracy that is more faithful to popular rule, more likely to tap into democratic reason, and more stable and durable than electoral democracy.' – Erica Yu, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics
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Review
"Open Democracy envisions what true government by mass leadership could look like. Her model is based on the simple idea that, if government by the people is a goal, the people ought to do the governing."---Nathan Heller, New Yorker
"[Landemore] argues that we need a new, more inclusive system of governance that is less elitist and more participatory to cure what ails democracy."-- "The Nation"
"A bold exploration of how we can move beyond a purely electoral conception of democratic representation. Using normative democratic theory and real-world examples of innovations in citizen representation, Hélène Landemore argues for a vision of democracy that is more faithful to popular rule, more likely to tap into democratic reason, and more stable and durable than electoral democracy."---Erica Yu, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics
"A fascinating, wide-ranging book."---Rachael Walsh, International Journal of Constitutional Law
"A great defence of both sortition and deliberation as complements to representative democracy."---Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Open Magazine
"Ambitious. . . . A scheme that breaks with two liberal-democratic institutions that are usually taken for granted: elections and political parties."---Jan-Werner Mueller, Project Syndicate
"Finalist for the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award"
"Important."---Christopher Kutz, Los Angeles Review of Books
About the Author
Hélène Landemore is associate professor of political science at Yale University. She is the author of Democratic Reason (Princeton) and Hume.
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Brook Manville
5.0 out of 5 stars Combines theory and practice in a compelling argument for how to reinvent democracyReviewed in the United States on 12 April 2021
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A veritable compendium of the latest theory and practice, informed by plenty of historical experience, for reinventing today’s 18th century representative democracy—culminating in an intriguing vision for how to turn it all into a believable- if highly aspirational— new paradigm. She makes the seemingly impossible task seem at least plausible.
4 people found this helpfulReport
Hel's
5.0 out of 5 stars Impeccable 😉Reviewed in France on 12 April 2023
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Livre en très bon état.
Répond à mes attentes. Très intéressant!
Mérite l'effort de le lire en anglais, pour ceux qui hésite.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking rethink of the political sphere, lacking extension into the economic sphere.Reviewed in the United States on 30 June 2021
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In reading Open Democracy, the author challenges the modern conception of “democracy”. Effectively reconstructs, through philosophy and real world examples, an alternative model of democracy in a synthesis of ancient and modern forms, and proved through normative and empirical analysis. The result is a more Open Democratic form that could break the current hierarchical nature of liberal democracy. The only gap in the examination is the impact of political economy, where the class divisions of the firm and society as a totality would engage to destroy the aforementioned project.
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