PROCEDEM is a new working group of the Centre de Recherches Politiques de Sciences Po Paris (CEVIPOF) affiliated to the CPS. Please, find below its official presentation:
Research Group on Democratic Procedures (PROCEDEM )
Centre de Recherches Politiques de Sciences Po Paris(CEVIPOF)/CNRS UMR 7048
Gil DELANNOI, Oliver DOWLEN, Laurence MOREL
During the last decades a number of experiments in participatory democratic procedures have taken place. Some of these, such as citizens’ juries or neighbourhood councils, have been quite new, while others, such as public consultations and public inquiries, have been more conventional. Some success notwithstanding, the record of these experiments has been mixed, and the fact that interest in such procedures remains low seems to confirm the prediction, voiced by their critics, that these processes often fall into the hands of minorities. This in turn suggests a renewal of interest in those more traditional procedures that have the capacity to involve a large number of citizens in public and political life. The most prominent example of this is election, but the regular use of referendums and the systematic use of random recruitment of citizens to public office also belong in this category. Each of these procedures refers to a different kind of democracy. Representative democracy, the historical source and symbol of which is the parliamentary organisation – including a protected legal opposition – is based on elections. The direct type of democracy is based on popular votes through referendums while the sortive type of democracy is characterised by the use of sortition or random selection in the choice of officials or representatives (this can operate at a local, regional or national level).
