There is a large debate in democratic theory about models of democracy, starting at least from Held’s famous book, Models of Democracy. Any theorist, it seems, starts with their own account of the dichotomy, trichotomy, or n-chotomy of democratic models, and then (surprise!) builds the n+1th model which overcomes their limitations. Thus, we get the classic, liberal, communitarian, republican, aggregative, deliberative, participatory, representative, neoliberal, conciliatory, agonistic, majoritarian, minimal, developmental, economic, consensus, property-owning, western, pluralist, socialist, thick, thin, epistemic, direct, … model of democracy. If you’re creative enough, you will find a new adjective for your own view.
August 2, 2018