Where are the sources of inspiration that can improve global and national prospects in 2011? openDemocracy writers across the world offer their thoughts. (The first contributions in this collection were published on 3 January 2011)
Modern democracy does require something more than a cynical set of operators negotiating with corporate power while misleading the voters and spinning the press. Associational democracy is a good place to start for any government casting about for an alternative. But first you must accept its diag
Paul Hirst explored one particular cause for the creeping authoritarianism of the liberal democratic state that he identified before 9/11: the worsening crisis caused by the attempt to govern by one community standard in a diversifying world.
Revisiting Associative Democracy, an e-book, draws together the ideas and thoughts of a group of people who met last October to discuss, scrutinise and develop Paul Hirst’s views of Associative Democracy and their current relevance. The editor and seminar organiser gives us a tour de horizon of th
Participants in the Revisiting Associative Democracy seminar organized last October by Andrea Westall and Stuart White in London’s Coin Street Community Centre were invited to read this usefully condensed account of Paul Hirst's normative political theory, published in 2002.
When our media and politicians use the term 'the country', they often mean 'England', rather than Great Britain. The subsequent confusion is used to promote the idea of the UK as united under the control of Westminster, while muffling the debate around England as a distinct national, political and
There exist in fact a range of useful definitions, some of which are deployed by governments already, that could serve a far greater number of vulnerable human beings. A more rounded application of human security would have identified the international system as a domain that needs to be rendered
We live in a highly organised climate of fear. If security organisations depend upon fear and paranoia to sustain their existence, Wikileaks suggests using the same tools to hold them to account.
While we must respect the organic nature of our institutions, we must also accept them as social constructs. We need to develop a new approach to social organisation that is radically democratic, encourages accountability and works to resist tribalism.
The shocked faces of Camilla and Prince Charles as they are attacked by a group of student demonstrators is now an iconic image. It has come to symbolise the potential of protest to break with the illusion of the separateness of worlds upon which the structures of power are built.
Tibetan ‘soft power’ has ensured that we are going to see a continued rise in Tibetan nationalistic aspirations along with the flourishing of Tibetan culture and civilization, in tandem with the rise of China as a global power
