#ScienceofDemocracy
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.132
🗣️ @normaosterberg.bsky.social built the participatory method #Photovoice into democracy studies, asking a group of Master's students to photograph object/s embodying 'democracy'.
📸 None of the photos that came back showed a parliament, a ballot box, or a polling station:
🦋 What happens when you ask people to photograph democracy
Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann built the participatory method Photovoice into democracy studies, creating a three-step design that asks participants to put a photograph before a single word. The pictures th...
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November 4, 2026 at 9:22 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.131
🌐 Mebratu Kelecha argues for a 'pluriversal democracy', which would protect conflict without elimination, recognise the right to opacity, and build institutions in which #IndigenousLaw + revisable political settlements can coexist.
👉 buff.ly/TL2BCNx
🦋 Building a pluriversal democracy where many worlds fit
Mebratu Kelecha argues that democracy should not force deep differences into one supposedly universal language. A pluriversal democracy would protect conflict without elimination, recognise the right ...
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August 13, 2026 at 9:07 AM
🎉 Congratulations to @dhilaprimandari.bsky.social who made the Loop Best Blog longlist for their article 'Does our understanding of democratic consolidation have a male bias?' from our 🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy series.
👉️ buff.ly/an17r3S
🦋 Does our understanding of democratic consolidation have a male bias?
Feminist scholarship is warning of a backlash against gender equality and women’s political inclusion. But if anti-gender backlash constitutes democratic deconsolidation, why has it been possible to d...
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April 27, 2026 at 8:39 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.130
🤺 The Science of Democracy 2.0 challenges current uses of the term 'democracy'.
🌍 Yida Zhai argues that these uses are not universal but culturally specific, making them inadequate for describing the political realities of the human species as a whole.
👉 bit.ly/4l2IvNC
🦋 Data, power, and the future of democratic theory
The Science of Democracy 2.0 challenges current uses of the term 'democracy'. Yida Zhai argues that these uses are not universal but culturally specific. This, he says, makes them inadequate for descr...
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March 3, 2026 at 9:18 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.129
💭 Gulay Icoz explores how this rejuvenated series challenges conventional #DemocraticTheory + opens new pathways for citizen-led innovation while raising critical questions about institutional grounding + feasibility.
👉 bit.ly/48In3Ji
🦋 Reimagining democratic theory
Gulay Icoz explores how the rejuvenated Science of Democracy series – Science of Democracy 2.0 – challenges conventional democratic theory. Here, she explains how it opens new pathways for citizen-led...
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December 16, 2025 at 9:20 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.128
💭 This series opens space for multiple democratic practices + concepts that defy a single definition, but can plurality alone unsettle colonial knowledge structures? 
🔎 Paul Emiljanowicz explores the project’s decolonial aspirations.
👉 bit.ly/48HgoOq
🦋 Democracy beyond collection
This new phase in the Science of Democracy series – 2.0 – opens space for multiple democratic practices and concepts that defy a single definition. Yet, can plurality alone unsettle colonial knowledge...
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December 9, 2025 at 9:40 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.127
Discussions about democracy have never been more vibrant. 🗣️ Yet, debates often unfold in a highly simplistic or unreflective way.
🙋 Dimitris Kastritis argues for the need to keep raising 🆕 questions in democratic theory.
👉 bit.ly/49Q1bwI
🦋 The theory of democracy revisited: an interdisciplinary call to arms
Discussions about democracy have never been more vibrant. Yet, debates often unfold in a highly simplistic or unreflective way. Dimitris Kastritis joins the Science of Democracy 2.0 to argue for the n...
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December 1, 2025 at 9:34 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.126
🚦 This new phase in the series sets an insightful agenda for overcoming the gridlock in democracy studies.
🗣️ Peter A. Kraus argues that the ultimate + inescapable challenge in developing a democratic epistemics is the politics involved.
👉 bit.ly/3Kk67PN
🦋 Democratising democracy science: challenges, chances, and aporias
This new phase in the Science of Democracy series sets a brisk and insightful agenda for overcoming the gridlock in democracy studies. While he embraces its key points, Peter A. Kraus argues that the ...
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November 27, 2025 at 9:27 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.125
🙋‍♀️ Who should decide what counts as democratic, and how? Such a challenge raises ethical, practical, and philosophical difficulties.
☄️ Leonardo Fiorespino questions the ethical issue and introduces 'the asteroid belt of democracies'.
👉 bit.ly/3JsRmtS
🦋 Epistocracy, DemEarth, and the asteroid belt of democracy
Who should decide what counts as democratic, and how? This series argues that such a challenge raises an ethical, a practical, and a philosophical difficulty. Leonardo Fiorespino questions the ethical...
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November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.124
Institutional theories rooted in the works of #Schumpeter + #RobertDahl still dominate the study of democracy.
Ryusaku Yamada argues this series reveals the emergence of another current: scholars who engage democracy from critical perspectives.
👉 bit.ly/4ojSkHQ
🦋 The times have changed: beyond conventional studies of democracy
Institutional theories rooted in the works of Joseph Schumpeter and Robert Dahl still dominate the study of democracy. But, argues Ryusaku Yamada, this Science of Democracy 2.0  discussion reveals the...
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November 6, 2025 at 9:22 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.123
We need to break democracy out of the disciplinary boundaries of political studies. Reimagining it using a multidisciplinary approach, argues @pandapoliticus.bsky.social, could be the antidote to the global democratic anxiety we are facing.
👉 bit.ly/3WtGb71
🦋 Breaking democracy out of its box
We need to break democracy out of the disciplinary boundaries of political studies. A fresh, multidisciplinary approach to reimagining democracy, argues Mouli Banerjee, could be the antidote to the gl...
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October 31, 2025 at 11:45 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.122
💭 In a time of anthropogenic existential crises, writes @ioannisrz.bsky.social, this new stage in the Science of Democracy conversation highlights how plural thinking can help rejuvenate democracy.
👉 bit.ly/478VF6B
🦋 The pluriverse of democracy
In a time of anthropogenic existential crises, writes Ioannis Rigkos-Zitthen, this new stage in the Science of Democracy conversation highlights how plural thinking can help rejuvenate democracy
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October 24, 2025 at 11:10 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.121
🔃 Do we need a paradigm shift in democracy research? 
↔️ Simon Bein broadens the current western-led perspective on researching democracies and asks: who says what and where democracy is?
👉 bit.ly/3W8mamk
🦋 Democracy between anywhere and nowhere
Do we need a paradigm shift in democracy research? Simon Bein broadens the current western-led perspective on searching for, and researching, democracies. Nevertheless, he warns, theorists should avoi...
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October 16, 2025 at 8:35 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.120
@michbied.bsky.social outlines a tripartite caveat for this 🆕 phase of the series by considering a concept rarely engaged in the study of politics: ideology.
🧑‍🏫 Here, he opens up normative considerations that education needs to guide.
👉 bit.ly/4pZyrap
🦋 Ideology, normativity, and education
Michał Biedowicz outlines a tripartite caveat for this new phase of the Science of Democracy discussion by considering a concept well known but rarely engaged in the study of politics: ideology. Here,...
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October 10, 2025 at 9:46 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.119
💭 The ‘Fourth Theorist’ is the radical idea of a yet-to-exist theoretician who can access + condense immense amounts of information. @rishirajsen.bsky.social explores whether the #FourthTheorist risks becoming an authoritarian figure.
👉 bit.ly/4mOc7h5
🦋 The ‘Fourth Theorist’ and the future of democracy
A new book by this series’ founder introduced the radical idea of a yet-to-exist theoretician who can access and condense immense amounts of information. Rishiraj Sen looks at the advantages and pitfa...
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October 3, 2025 at 8:27 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.118
💭 This new phase in the series posits the idea of a 'Fourth Theorist' – a still-to-exist thinker who may in future come to life. But, asks Dimitra Mareta, will that person, or thing, deliver on their promises? Or will it prove a false idol?
👉 bit.ly/4mx0RWc
🦋 On democracy’s 'Fourth Theorist'
This new phase in the Science of Democracy series posits the idea of a 'Fourth Theorist' – a still-to-exist thinker who may in future come to life. But, asks Dimitra Mareta, will that person, or thing...
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September 25, 2025 at 8:43 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.117
Feminist scholarship is warning of a backlash against #GenderEquality and women’s inclusion. ♂️♀️ Fadhilah Primandari revisits our understanding of democratic consolidation and asks: is it biased towards men’s political domination?
👉 bit.ly/4njuYSo
🦋 Does our understanding of democratic consolidation have a male bias?
Feminist scholarship is warning of a backlash against gender equality and women’s political inclusion. But if anti-gender backlash constitutes democratic deconsolidation, why has it been possible to d...
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September 19, 2025 at 9:52 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.116
🗣️ In a climate of populist narratives, citizens need a clear message about democracy.
💭 Agnieszka Pawłowska proposes we should be provided with plain democracy, which would empower us to recognise + use the fundamentals of democracy.
👉 bit.ly/47x8Df1
🦋 Plain democracy: reclaiming fundamentals in an age of democratic erosion
In the current climate of populist narratives, citizens need a clear message about democracy. Agnieszka Pawłowska draws inspiration from the notion of plain language. Here, she proposes that citizens ...
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September 8, 2025 at 9:42 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.115
🏫 Citizens support democracy itself, but are growing disillusioned with democratic institutions.
💭 @normaosterberg.bsky.social & Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach suggest we need to rethink our frameworks and broaden the empirical paradigm.
👉 buff.ly/O6vGThl
🦋 Shift happens: rethinking democracy research in times of crisis
Democracy research must evolve. Citizens support democracy itself, but are growing disillusioned with democratic institutions. Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach and Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann say we need to…
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August 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM
🦋 #ScienceofDemocracy No.114
🌍 The science of democracy is hit particularly heavily in non-democratic regimes.
🏫 Max Steuer argues that non-democratic practices in academia complicate the issue and calls for a debate on more intra-academic democracy.
👉 bit.ly/45mFYGx
🦋 Democracy in academia: the not-so-wanted child
Of all domains of inquiry, the science of democracy is hit particularly heavily in non-democratic regimes. Max Steuer argues that non-democratic practices in academia complicate the issue. Here, he ca...
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August 7, 2025 at 9:39 AM
🦋 #ScienceofDemocracy No.113
#DemocracyResearch is in trouble. The Science of Democracy 2.0 responds with an ambitious agenda. Jonas Wolff explores a fundamental tension: can a radically pluralist approach to democracy research really be a tool to defend democracy?
👉 buff.ly/DgnFJV6
🦋 The Science of Democracy and the limits of an uncompromisingly pluralist approach
Democracy is in trouble, and so is democracy research. In response, the Science of Democracy 2.0 lays out an ambitious agenda. While applauding this endeavour, Jonas Wolff explores a fundamental…
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August 1, 2025 at 9:48 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.112
💭 A new phase in this series offers a rethinking of democracy by challenging Western-centric models. @hongdp.bsky.social acknowledges its ambition, but argues it risks celebrating democratic traditions without fully addressing embedded inequalities.
👉 buff.ly/jNhbas4
🦋 What counts as democracy? A critical reflection on The Science of Democracy 2.0
The Science of Democracy 2.0 offers a bold, innovative rethinking of democracy by embracing diversity and challenging Western-centric models. Hong Do acknowledges its ambition, but argues it risks…
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July 24, 2025 at 9:20 AM
🦋 #ScienceOfDemocracy No.111
✍️ To kickstart another round of essays, Jean-Paul Gagnon recaps four years’ worth of discussions in this series. He explains where this ever-growing community of scholars has got to so far – and where it aims to go next.
👉 bit.ly/4kxCo1T
🦋 Science of Democracy 2.0
To kickstart another round of essays, Jean-Paul Gagnon recaps four years’ worth of discussions in The Loop's Science of Democracy series. He explains where this ever-growing community of scholars has ...
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July 15, 2025 at 11:27 AM
🦋 ScienceOfDemocracy No.108
Simon Bein offers a new perspective on the understandings of democracy and political identities in democratic societies. He argues that democracies which recognise and balance competing political identities are less polarised
PoliSky
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🦋 What identity does democracy need? The necessity and danger of political polarisation
Simon Bein postulates a new perspective on the multiplicity of understandings of democracy and political identities in democratic societies. He argues that democracies which recognise and balance comp...
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March 22, 2024 at 11:43 AM