The Sciences of the Democracies
Jean-Paul Gagnon (Author), Benjamin Abrams (Author)
The field of democracy studies is more constricted than it needs to be, as researchers, for all their insights, continue to study only fragments of democracy in isolation from each other. Seeking change, The Sciences of the Democracies proposes a groundbreaking means for holistic study, drawing on five sources of knowledge that will provide better understanding of democracy, or rather, of ‘the democracies’. These are: individual people, groups of people, non-textual media, texts, and non-humans.
This book details how the inclusion of these five sources across temporal, spatial, cultural, linguistic, and species contexts leads to the discovery of democratic practices and institutions hitherto unknown or unfamiliar to the conventional ‘Western’ perception. It promises to generate a new class of democratic theorist – the ‘Fourth Theorist’, who theorizes from thousands of multimedial democracy concepts – and it has the potential for generating better-founded, less arbitrary, more inclusive democratic theories. In doing so, the book considers the philosophical, institutional, educational, and methodological difficulties of the scientific understandings and undertakings it proposes. The book is a choral work of many collaborating authors. Their ambition is to offer a touchstone text for government and public officials, citizens, residents and visitors, researchers, practitioners, and philanthropists (big and small) participating in what is a vibrant global discussion on how to study and practice democracy equitably.
Note about authorship
About the authors
Key points for readers
Acknowledgements
1 The story of this book
2 The sciences of the democracies and cognates
3 Data mountains and their democratic theorists
4 New institutions: models for the useability of our data
5 Our public relations problem
6 Methodological complexities
7 Enter the dynamo
Essays in response
8 Democracy and the dangers of self-evident truths Matthew Flinders
9 A compelling but precarious way to study democracy Michael Saward
10 Between praiseworthy ambition and academic audacity Michael Freeden
11 The power of a 1,000-word blog Martin J. Bull and Johanne Døhlie Saltnes
References
Index
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800089051
Publication date: 07 August 2025
PDF ISBN: 9781800089051
EPUB ISBN: 9781800089068
Read Online ISBN: 9781800089051
Hardback ISBN: 9781800089037
Paperback ISBN: 9781800089044
Jean-Paul Gagnon (Author) 
Jean-Paul Gagnon is a philosopher of democracies at the University of Canberra and an editor of the journal Democratic Theory.
Benjamin Abrams (Author)
Benjamin Abrams is Associate Professor of Sociology at University College London’s Institute of Education and Chief Editor of the journal Contention.
Hans Asenbaum (Contributions by)
Hans Asenbaum is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra.
Andreas Avgousti (Contributions by)
Andreas Avgousti completed his PhD at Columbia University and teaches History at Katz Yeshiva High School in Florida, USA.
Rikki Dean (Contributions by)
Rikki Dean is an associate Professor in Politics and Co-Director for the Centre for Democratic Futures at the University of Southampton.
Gergana Dimova (Contributions by)
Gergana Dimova is an associate Professor in Politics and Sociology at Northeastern University, London, UK.
Peter Donkor (Contributions by)
Peter Donkor earned his master’s from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and is in his pre-doc period.
Erica Dorn (Contributions by)
Erica Dorn is an assistant Professor in Design and Innovation at Oregon State University.
Anna Drake (Contributions by)
Anna Drake is an assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo.
Dannica Fleuß (Contributions by)
Dannica Fleuß is a visiting professor at the University of Nairobi and a research associate at the University of Canberra.
Brigitte Geissel (Contributions by)
Brigitte Geissel is Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology and Head of the Research Unit “Democratic Innovations” at Goethe University, Frankfurt.
Agustín Goenaga (Contributions by)
Agustín Goenaga is an assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden.
Petra Guasti (Contributions by)
Petra Guasti is an associate Professor of Democratic Theory at Charles University’s Faculty of Social Sciences.
Zheng Guo (Contributions by)
Zheng Guo is a pre-doctoral candidate in political science holding a master’s from the University of Copenhagen.
Alexander Hudson (Contributions by)
Alexander Hudson is a senior Adviser in the Democracy Assessment Unit of International IDEA’s Global Programmes in Stockholm, Sweden.
Marcin Kaim (Contributions by)
Marcin Kaim is a researcher working at the Polish Academy of Sciences - Scientific Centre in Vienna, Austria.
Eva Krick (Contributions by)
Eva Krick is a democracy scholar, based at the University of Mainz.
Kathleen McCrudden Illert (Contributions by)
Kathleen Mccrudden-Illert is a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.
John B. Min (Contributions by)
John B. Min is a Philosophy Professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the College of Southern Nevada.
Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach (Contributions by)
Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach is a postdoctoral Fellow at the Chair of Comparative Politics at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology, University of Würzburg.
Leonardo Morlino (Contributions by)
Leonardo Morlino was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at LUISS, Rome, Italy. Further detail on Professor Morlino’s life and work can be found in an IPSA tribute here: https://www.ipsa.org/na/news/leonardo-morlino-memoriam-1947-2025.
Kei Nishiyama (Contributions by)
Kei Nishiyama is a lecturer of education at Kaichi International University, Japan.
Remi Chukwudi Okeke (Contributions by)
Remi Chukwudi Okeke is Lecturer I at Madonna University, Nigeria.
Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann (Contributions by)
Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann is researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Humboldt-Universität Berlin.
Lucy J. Parry (Contributions by)
Lucy J Parry is principally a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
Markus Pausch (Contributions by)
Markus Pausch is a democracy researcher and Professor at the Social Department of the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg.
Patricia Roberts-Miller (Contributions by)
Patricia Roberts-Miller is Professor Emerita of Rhetoric and Writing and former Director of the University Writing Center at the University of Texas Austin.
Ernesto Cruz Ruiz (Contributions by)
Ernesto Cruz Ruiz earned his doctoral degree from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and continues his research on contemporary democracies at the TUM.
Shannon Song (Contributions by)
Shannon Song is a higher degree research student at the University of Canberra.
Toralf Stark (Contributions by)
Toralf Stark is a Research Fellow with the Institute of Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Tom Theuns (Contributions by)
Tom Theuns is principally a senior assistant Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at the Institute of Political Science in Leiden.
Laurence Whitehead (Contributions by)
Laurence Whitehead is a senior research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford, and series editor of "Oxford Studies in Democratization".
‘This collectively-authored book is a manifesto for advancing the democratic project by studying the myriad ways in which people across time and space already know democracy-relevant practices and institutions. A timely and ambitious project aimed at forming and consolidating a new generation of democracy scholars.’
Mark E. Warren, University of British Columbia
‘The Sciences of the Democracies is a wonderful exploration of how we study democracy. Presented as an intervention and innovation in research design, the authors deliver a deep, timely, and inspiring reflection on democracy’s past, present, and future.’
Simone Chambers, University of California, Irvine
‘The Sciences of the Democracies introduces a genuinely original collaborative project of democratic learning and action. While breaking free from familiar academic constraints in its form and content, it is a record of ongoing research into the pluralism of democratic experiences, institutions and ideas, as well as of the different ways to study and build on them. It should be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered what democracy is, has been and might be.’
Annabelle Lever, Sciences-Po
‘This is a wonderfully ambitious book, whose great merit lies in its bold choice to view democracy as a phenomenon of continuous variation—a sine qua non not only for biological adaption in the face of challenge, but also for the democratic revitalization so urgently needed in today’s world.’
Frank Hendriks, Tilburg University
‘The Sciences of the Democracies offers exciting new possibilities in how we think about, discuss, theorize, and practice democracy. This book’s collaborative process demonstrates a democratic approach to the study of democracy. While some readers may find the project’s more ambitious aspects too optimistic, achieving just the practical recommendations – starting with the digital freely accessible database of democracy artefacts – will inject vitality into democracy discourses and practices and expand the horizons of theorists and activists. This is a major contribution to the renewal of democracy as the hope for better futures for peoples around the world.’ Sor Hoon Tan, Singapore Management University
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