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Since its origins, democracy has been a work in progress. Today, many question its resilience. The Bertelsmann Foundation, Institute for Canadian Citizenship, and Humanity in Action have teamed up with Andrew Keen, author of How to Fix the Future, for Season Three of How to Fix Democracy: a video and podcast series exploring practical responses to the threats facing democracies around the world. Host Andrew Keen interviews prominent thinkers, writers, politicians, technologists, and business leaders who enlighten and challenge us as we seek the answers to How to Fix Democracy.
Season 3 Episode 18, titled “Examining elections,” features David van Reybrouck, a Belgian author, historian, archaeologist, and the National Endowment for the Humanities / Hannah Arendt Center Fellow at Bard College in New York.
He and host Andrew Keen take a multifaceted approach to deliberative democracy and the structural challenges of democratic practices today. Are elections as we know them today indispensable to democracy? Are there other kinds of decision-making processes that can empower citizens instead of elevating elites? Keen and van Reybrouck reflect on the philosophical underpinnings of representative democracy, discuss the latest developments in deliberative democracy and citizens’ assemblies, and consider the state of political communication and citizenship today. (watch|listen)
This series is made possible with the kind support of the William H. Donner Foundation. Find more episodes here.