Democratic Design

Democracy faces stern tests around the world in the twenty-first century. Democratic Design argues that to respond effectively and creatively, democrats need to work with a versatile new toolkit of concepts and institutions. The book assembles this toolkit — the democratic design framework — through an original blend of design thinking and democratic theory and practice. It shows how to use the framework to renew and enliven our ideas of democracy across a range of contexts.

The book explores a wide range of institutions, from the familiar (such as parliamentary procedures) to the innovative (such as citizens' assemblies). It underlines the importance of systemic and contextual design, and the practical enactment of democratic values such as equality, freedom and participation.

Democratic Design shows how a comprehensive approach to rethinking the present and future of democratic governance is possible, indeed essential. It draws together, and moves beyond, the best of existing theories and models by devising a new framework that is both practical and theoretically robust.

Michael Saward, Professor of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

Michael Saward is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. A former Head of Politics at the Open University, he has published widely on democratic theory and practice, including The Representative Claim (Oxford University Press, 2010) and Making Representations (ECPR Press and Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020). He is co-editor of Enacting European Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and The Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance (Oxford University Press, 2020).