The Futures of Representative Democracy (FURY)

About

The Futures of Representative Democracy (FURY) focus group is dedicated to the study of politics and governance in different forms of representative democracy across time and space. More specifically, it examines the question of whether the established mechanisms of representative democracy are suitable for the needs of the future and whether and how they can possibly be adapted and improved.

Building on the foundational work of Hanna Pitkin (1967) on representation, as well as more recent attempts to conceptualise and theorise political representation and representative democracy (Manin 1997; Crouch 2004; Della Porta 2013; Dalton 2012; Ankersmit 2002; Alonso/Keane/Merkel 2012), FURY provides an interface for research, teaching, learning and outreach projects that seek to discuss ideas, institutions, processes and instruments of democratic representation in order to understand if, how, when and why collective actors involve citizens in the political decision-making processes that affect them beyond established boundaries.

FURY has the following main areas of work: