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On 6-7 July, 2023, "Rethinking Democracy Today" was held as a two part, half day online seminar, bringing together researchers from the University of Warwick and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. The event included a range of perspectives on the meanings, status and challenges of democracy today. This seminar also enabled the two institutions to clarify the potential for further events on this theme along with potential work for further events on this theme.

Contents of the seminar-

Session 1:

Chair- Özlem Atikacn

'Democratic Crossroads' (Richard Youngs, Carnegie Europe and Warwick)

'Democracy in name only' (Roger Boyd, BSIA)

Session 2:

Chair – Özlem Atikcan

‘Democratizing the Extended State: Public Enterprise Constraints and Capacities’ (Heather Whiteside, BSIA, and Stephen McBride, McMaster)

‘The Politics of Preventing Violent Extremism: Liberal Democracy, Civil Society, Radicalisation and Vulnerability’ (Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Sadi Shanaah, Warwick)

Session 3:

Chair – Heather Whiteside

‘Motivation in Democratic Design’ (Keith Hyams, Warwick)

‘New Confucians and Legalists in Contemporary East Asia: Reshaping Chinese Cosmotechnics of State’ (Jonathan Hui, BSIA)

Session 4:

Chair – Alistair Edgar

‘The Need for Political Development and Governance Institutions’ (Maral Niazi, BSIA)

‘Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt from 20 Years of Supporting Democracy, Development and Security’ (Oz Hassan, Warwick)

Session 5:

Chair – Felicia Clement

‘Democratising Finance: The Advantages and Pitfalls of Financial Citizenship (as an Analytical Concept)’ (Lena Rethel, Warwick)

‘UNFSS Stakeholder Impacts on Global Governance’ (Johanna Wilkes, BSIA)

Session 6:

Chair – Richard Youngs

‘Democracy and Multi-alignment: A Viable Model for International Relations?’ (Randolph Mank, BSIA)

Session 7:

Chair – Jasmin Habib

‘Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge and Practices in Global Food Governance’ (Carla Johnston, BSIA)

‘Democracy and the Indigenous Voice’ (Michael Saward, Warwick)

‘The Madness in the Method: Thinking Through Democracy During Fieldwork in India’ (Mouli Banerjee, Warwick)

Session 8:

Democracy Research Centres and Activity – Balsillie (Andrew Thompson) and Warwick (Michael Saward)

The seminar produced a series of pressing questions and thematic points regarding democracy:

• The Importance of Clarity – What prior assumptions are we making about what democracy is? Where, and to what, does the concept direct our thinking or attention?
• Democracy’s Conditions – The persisting importance of social, economic, and cultural equality and recognition to underpin political equality at the heart of democracy.
• Lurking Liberalism – Liberal, illiberal, liberalism, neo-liberalism: all are invoked. The discussions revived longstanding questions about the relationship in theory and practice between democratic and liberal ideals and structures.
• In Name Only? – What is needed for democracy to avoid being ‘democracy in name only’?
• Process and Outcome – What is the relationship between a) democracy as certain practices and machinery of governance, and b) the policy content that the practices and machinery produce?
• Motives – Could there be a conception of democratic motives for agents in, and of, the state?
• Pluralism and Monism – What mix of moral pluralism and moral monism, if any, does democracy require or demand?
• Technology and Democracy – What technologies make what sorts of democracy desirable/undesirable, feasible/infeasible? Is there truth in the idea that our democratic systems rely on ‘Victorian architecture,’ unsuited for the age of AI?
• Elections – Elections alone do not a democracy make!