Conclusion: Shapes of the Frontier [This is the final chapter of the book Democratic Theorists in Conversation: Turns in Contemporary Thought first published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.] Shapes – they are objects of differing dimensions, compositions and structures. Together they can make striking mosaics. On their own they can offer conceptual boundaries. Shapes are […]

Why Democratic Theory? [Co-authored with Mark Chou, this introductory article to the first issue of the journal Democratic Theory makes the case for the field’s importance in, and relevance to, our political times.] The post-1945 world is well documented for its surge in the study of and struggles over “democracy”. The Eurocentric and then Pacific […]

The Crisis of Democracy: Which Crisis? Which Democracy? [This introductory article (editorial) was co-authored with Selen Ercan and first published in Democratic Theory. It introduces a special issue on the “crisis of democracy” which came out of a national symposium on the subject hosted by the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra.] Abstract: […]

A Genealogy of Deliberative Democracy [This conversation with Stephen Elstub on deliberative democracy was first published in Democratic Theory.] AbstractStephen Elstub articulates that deliberative democracy, as a theory, can be seen as having gone through various distinct generations. The first generation was a period where the normative values and the justifications for deliberative democracy were […]

Push to curb activists may add to sweatshop workers’ struggle [First published by The Conversation, this article was co-authored with Mark Chou and Tezcan Gumus.] In late 2012, at least 117 workers died in a garment factory fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kalpona Akter, a union activist from Dhaka, and Sumi Abedin, a survivor of the fire, retold their […]

Bold spiders ensure a bright future for the whole colony [First published by The Conversation. I ran into this research on ‘leadership’ in a social spider species whilst reading for an altogether different work (a forthcoming book on non-human democracy).] Stegodyphus dumicola is a social spider. This curious little creature lives in shared nests with more than 2,000 others. […]

The ‘will of the people’? It’s the bastardisation of democracy [First published by The Conversation, this article was co-authored with Mark Chou.] The Abbott government, when faced with opposition over the past year, has commonly resorted to two lifeline statements. The first is that it’s carrying out the “will of the people”. And the second is […]

Bringing the free market down to earth is a moral question [Originally appearing in The Conversation, this article was co-authored with Mark Chou.] Five years on, the response of governments around the world to the global financial crisis (GFC) continues to draw criticism. Leaders failed to fulfil the promises they made during the GFC’s darkest days […]

Democracy needs heroes to champion the cause [Originally published by The Conversation, co-authored with Mark Chou and Octavia Bryant.] Laureates, like symbolic ambassadors and commissioners, draw attention to causes and issues that we, as a society, consider to be of widespread importance. In various parts of the world, medicine, physics, chemistry, economics, literature, peace, poetry, children, writing, research and human rights all have the dedicated service of […]