Hacking the representative system through deliberation? The organization of the Agora party in Brussels

Junius, Nino; Caluwaerts, Didier; Matthieu, Joke; Erzeel, Silvia

doi:10.1057/s41269-021-00226-3

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…Informal decision-making and deliberation play an essential role throughout the organization. Low institutionalization is tightly related to Agora’s stratarchical nature, which emphasizes the autonomy of every working group and member and results in a highly decentralized party structure (Carty, 2004; Junius et al, 2021). Within the organization, responsibilities and tasks are distributed freely through mandates written down autonomously by the members, albeit in dialogue with others.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Who rules the deliberative party? Examining the Agora case in Belgium

Junius

Matthieu

2022

Party Politics

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In recent years, pessimism about plebiscitary intra-party democracy has been challenged by assembly-based models of intra-party democracy. However, research has yet to explore the emergence of new power dynamics in parties originating from the implementation of deliberative practices in their intra-party democracy. We investigate how deliberative democratization reshuffles power relations within political parties through a case study of Agora, an internally deliberative movement party in Belgium. Employing a process-tracing approach using original interview and participant observation data, we argue that while plebiscitary intra-party democracy shifts power towards passive members prone to elite domination, our case suggests that deliberative intra-party democracy shifts power towards active members that are more likely to be critical of elites.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agora is a single-issue party exclusively focused on deliberative democratic innovations within its organization and broader political system. Moreover, it is formally leaderless (Junius et al, 2021). Therefore, the Agora case provides unique insights into what hierarchies emerge in a newly-founded, internally deliberative movement party.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who rules the deliberative party? Examining the Agora case in Belgium

Junius

Matthieu

2022

Party Politics

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“…The second article draws on a thick description of the organization of the Agora party in Brussels treated as an extreme case of party promoting deliberative practices (Junius et al 2021). It sheds light on the tensions between a party's deliberative ideals and its representative means.…”

Section: Contributions and Content Of The Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Political parties and deliberation: from challenges to opportunities

2023

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This special issue contributes to the bourgeoning literature that connects political parties and deliberative practices. It answers two related research questions: why do parties engage in deliberation? and what are the ways in which the deliberative practices can address the challenges faced by political parties in responding to a changing internal and external environment? Its articles cover both theoretical concepts and practical aspects that emerged in different political settings. The results illustrate how different forms of deliberation can contribute to reshaping parties as instruments to represent the people by allowing them to express their demands in a non-mediated form. As such, deliberation in party politics-within and outside party organization-can positively contribute to citizens' attitudes towards politics and to democratic life.

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“…He can only take a political position according to the assembly's recommendations and must abstain from voting if the BCA did not express itself on a given topic. As such, he is not a trustee representative but an extreme delegate of the Assembly (Junius et al, 2021). There are only two exceptions to this rule.…”

Section: Case-study: Agora's Representation Of the Brussels Citizens'...mentioning

confidence: 99%

From Representative to Represented Mini-Publics: How Mini-Publics’ Outputs are Shaped by Representation

Junius

2023

Political Studies Review

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Research has shown that deliberative mini-publics have the potential to mitigate some of the deficiencies of contemporary representative democracy. To this end, mini-publics are becoming increasingly connected to other institutions of the democratic system so that their outputs can be transmitted to policy-makers. This article argues that the literature has underappreciated that mini-publics’ outputs are not simply transmitted from one institution to another. Instead, the transmission of outputs from mini-publics to other sites in the democratic system is always mediated by representation, which necessarily transforms outputs to some extent. The article identifies the following three main reasons for this: mini-publics’ representatives must interpret, perform, and negotiate outputs. Drawing on a least-likely case-study of Agora’s representation of the Brussels Citizens’ Assembly, it illustrates how these issues are pervasive even when representatives are primarily interested in the literal and faithful transmission of mini-publics’ outputs. The findings highlight how representatives struggle with representing mini-publics’ outputs.

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Hacking the representative system through deliberation? The organization of the Agora party in Brussels

Cited by 7 publications

References 41 publications

Who rules the deliberative party? Examining the Agora case in Belgium

Who rules the deliberative party? Examining the Agora case in Belgium

Political parties and deliberation: from challenges to opportunities

From Representative to Represented Mini-Publics: How Mini-Publics’ Outputs are Shaped by Representation

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