Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

by Archon Fung (Editor), Erik Olin Wright (Editor), Rebecca Neaera Abers (Contribution by), Gianpaolo Baiocchi (Contribution by), Joshua Cohen (Contribution by)

Overview

The institutional forms of liberal democracy developed in the nineteenth century seem increasingly ill-suited to the problems we face in the twenty-first. This dilemma has given rise in some places to a new, deliberative democracy, and this volume explores four contemporary empirical cases in which the principles of such a democracy have been at least partially instituted: the participatory budget in Porto Alegre; the school decentralization councils and community policing councils in Chicago; stakeholder councils in environmental protection and habitat management; and new decentralised governance structures in Kerala. In keeping with the other Real Utopias Project volumes, these case studies are framed by an editors’ introduction, a set of commentaries, and concluding notes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859844663
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	03/17/2003
Series:	The Real Utopias Project , #4
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Archon Fung is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University.

Erik Olin Wright is Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of many books, including Classes, Interrogating Inequality, Class Counts, Deepening Democracy (with Archon Fung), and Envisioning Real Utopias. For more information on Envisioning Real Utopias and the Real Utopias project, and to access book content, please visit realutopias.org (site in progress).

Joshua Cohen was born in 1980 in New Jersey. He is the author of five books, including the novels Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, A Heaven of Others, and Witz. Cohen’s essays have appeared in The Forward, Nextbook, The Believer, and Harper’s. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Joel Rogers is Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Director of COWS. His many books include On Democracy, Right Turn, The Forgotten Majority, and What Workers Want. A longtime activist, Rogers was identified by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape U.S. politics and culture in the 21st century.

What People are Saying About This

Michael Burawoy

As we lose sight of alternatives, there is no more important political and theoretical task than to develop real utopias, real in that they are based on existing institutional experiments, utopian in that they challenge ruling ideas of the epoch. In Deepening Democracy, the latest volume in the Real Utopias series, Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright have brought together cases of what they call 'empowered participatory governance,' cases in which popular political participation becomes a vehicle for equity and efficiency. From Chicago public education to panchayat reform in Kerala, from habitat conservation in the United States to participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, we have case studies that enable Fung and Wright to think through the practical problems of real democracy. This is an inspirational political critique but at the same time a program for critical politics.

Editorial Reviews

As we lose sight of alternatives, there is no more important political and theoretical task than to develop real utopias, real in that they are based on existing institutional experiments, utopian in that they challenge ruling ideas of the epoch. In Deepening Democracy, the latest volume in the Real Utopias series, Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright have brought together cases of what they call ‘empowered participatory governance,’ cases in which popular political participation becomes a vehicle for equity and efficiency. From Chicago public education to panchayat reform in Kerala, from habitat conservation in the United States to participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, we have case studies that enable Fung and Wright to think through the practical problems of real democracy. This is an inspirational political critique but at the same time a program for critical politics.”—Michael Burawoy

“Erik Wright has made a towering contribution to the thought of the left over a quarter of a century. This arises from his own intellectual contribution ... but also from his tireless work in identifying issues, bringing people together, and encouraging them to publish their results.”—Science and Society

From the Publisher

Erik Wright has made a towering contribution to the thought of the left over a quarter of a century. This arises from his own intellectual contribution ... but also from his tireless work in identifying issues, bringing people together, and encouraging them to publish their results.

Science and Society

Both the theory and real-world practice of the oft-extolled but ill-defined concept of "participatory democracy" are fleshed out in this intellectually and stylistically challenging volume, part of the Real Utopias series on re-imagining public life. The contributors, mostly leftish academics, start from the premise that representative democracy often is unresponsive to local needs, discourages public involvement beyond voting and vests real decision-making with powerful interest groups and government policy experts. Their alternative is "Empowered Participatory Governance," in which significant authority is given to local deliberative bodies where ordinary people hash out innovative solutions to everyday, pot-hole-fixing problems. Four experiments in EPG are explored: Chicago's local school councils and community policing program; participatory municipal budgeting in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre; participatory development planning in India; and habitat conservation planning in the United States. Alongside these case studies, theoretical essays and critical commentaries debate the promise and problems of participatory governance. The writers are generally hopeful about these programs, which seem to have paid off in tangible ways like construction projects and reduced crime while nudging the alienated and downtrodden towards engaged citizenship. The book is heavy going, chockfull of detailed descriptions of participatory planning procedures, which involve council assemblies, budget drafts, monitoring commissions and iterations of same, and the authors' turgid academic prose does little to enliven the material. Still, readers who can wade through the jargon and matrices and game-theory abstractions will find an intelligent discussion of vital new possibilities for self-government. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly