Republican Principles in Participatory Events: An Analytical Framework

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in democratic participation, with a range of new initiatives and participatory tools implemented across the world - in local communities, for national debates, internationally and online. Despite their popularity and the widespread use of these initiatives, there is, however, often little clarity about how the success of these initiatives should be determined. In this thesis, I explore this question from a theoretical angle, advancing the idea that clear theoretical benchmarks and indicators are required to determine the success of any participatory initiative. To make this argument, I engage with the civic republican tradition, arguing that this approach offers an important set of benchmarks to evaluate participatory events. Specifically, I accentuate three core republican principles – civic virtue, common good and freedom as non-domination, which I argue can be used to evaluate participatory initiatives. Building on these principles, the purpose of the thesis is to develop an analytical framework for testing the degree to which participatory mechanisms accord with these values. I argue that by doing so, it becomes possible to evaluate the success of participatory mechanisms.