DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE AND THE MOBILIZATION OF SOCIETY

This project focuses upon forms of participatory democracy as they are elaborated 'from below' and implemented both in the internal organization of social movements and in experiments with deliberative decision-making. In particular, the project analyses the issue of active democracy as it emerges in the theories and practices of movements demanding a 'globalization from below'.

Social movements criticise the fundamentals of conventional practices of politics, and experiment with new models of democracy both in their internal structure and in the ways in which they interact with political institutions. Of particular interest are the conceptions and practices of democracy that have developed in the global movement/s that are mobilizing transnationally and demanding social justice and participatory democracy.

The ensuing debate about democracy is particularly relevant both for the development of civil society, and for the legitimization of political institutions at local, national and supranational levels. Our research - focusing on six European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Switzerland), as well as the EU itself - embraces an analysis of documents pertaining to both movements and public institutions, websites, semi-structured interviews with non-governmental organizations and public administrators, surveys of movement activists, participant observation of movement groups and experiences of participatory decision-making

A project funded by the EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate General for Research
6th Framework Programme (FP 6) Priority 7
Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge Based Society
(http://www.cordis.lu/citizens; contract no. CIT2-CT2004-506026) and (for the Swiss case) Federal Office for Education and Science, Switzerland (htpp://bbw.admin.ch; contract no. 03.0482).

Running time: 1 Sep 2004- 31 Aug 2008

Project Coordinator:
Prof. Donatella Della Porta (European University Institute, Florence)

European University Institute (Donatella Della Porta)
University of Kent at Canterbury (Christopher Rootes)
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (Dieter Rucht)
Università di Urbino (Mario Pianta)
Université de Paris I - Sorbonne (Isabelle Sommier)
Instituto de Estudios Sociales de Andalucía (Manuel Jiménez)
Université de Genève (Marco Giugni)

Download the DEMOS brochure [pdf]

Web site: http://demos.iue.it/