BACK TO PARTICIPATION: PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE

Abstract The article discusses the deflation of the participatory democracy ideal in the political science of recent decades. While the 1960's and 1970's original formulations indicated the need to increase opportunities for collective democratic management in the everyday life, particularly in the workplace, the models in the following decades accept the circumscription of democratic practices to the State. At the same time, the criticism to representative institutions and to the political passivity they promote has been set aside in favor of a perception in that the difference between participation and representation is practically annulled. Thus, the radicalism of participationist criticism to liberal democracies is lost.

摘要 本文探讨近数十年来政治学领域中参与式民主（participatory democracy）理想的式微。20世纪60、70年代的早期理论构想指出，需拓展日常生活尤其是工作场所中的集体民主管理机遇；而后续数十年间的相关理论模型，则将民主实践的范畴限定于国家层面。与此同时，针对代议制机构（representative institutions）及其所催生的政治被动性的批判声音被搁置，转而接受一种认知：参与与代议之间的差异已近乎被抹除。如此一来，参与主义批判自由主义民主的激进内核已然流失。