Human Entities 2023: culture in the age of artificial intelligence
Seventh edition, Wednesday 26 April 2023

Rebooting democracy
Manuel Arriaga + Pedro Magalhães
Manuel Arriaga is a university professor and one of the founders of the Fórum dos Cidadãos; Pedro Magalhães is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon

Democracy is a technology of collective decision-making that aggregates intentions and defines a course of action. However, according to the diagnosis of many, it’s a technology ‘in crisis’. An important part of the contemporary experience of ‘democratic frustration’ seems to result from the contrast between the stagnation of ways of doing politics and the rapid evolution of digital technology. As consumers, we have long learned to expect – and demand – innovation. Yet, as citizens, we regularly confront ourselves with the immutability of mechanisms of governance.

In representative democracy, who is effectively represented? How, and to what extent, are the interests and preferences of people – and different people – converted into policies? With regard to the issue of the environment and climate change, in every election cycle there seems to be a kind of myopia, or short-sightedness, which exclusively focuses on the articulation and resolution of (some) short-term problems.

To what extent can forms of ‘democratic innovation’, especially those that serve to create greater opportunities for political participation, serve to address long-term problems, in particular the climate crisis? What is the potential of other forms of political organisation as a complement, or even alternative, to representative democracy?

This discussion will be moderated by Catherine Moury, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the PhD programme, Political Studies Department, NOVA University of Lisbon.

Manuel Arriaga
Manuel Arriaga is a university professor, author of Rebooting Democracy: A Citizen’s Guide to Reinventing Politics one of the founders of the Fórum dos Cidadãos and, more recently, one of the driving forces behind the political party (still non-existent) FUTURO.

https://www.rebootdemocracy.org
https://www.forumdoscidadaos.pt
https://www.futurodemocratico.pt

Pedro Magalhães
Pedro Magalhães is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, where he develops research in the area of public opinion and political attitudes, in particular attitudes towards democracy.

https://www.pedro-magalhaes.org/
https://twitter.com/PCMagalhaes