The Democratic Design Framework: Motivations and the Dual Core

This chapter specifies the features at the heart of the new democratic design framework. Focusing on what motivates the framework, it details the notion of ‘democratic sensibility’ and other features of democracy’s normativity, and democracy’s minimum requirements (the ‘democratic minimum’). This is followed by specification of the critical idea of the ‘dual core’, consisting of (a) practices and (b) political principles. These two interacting elements together form the core of the democratic design framework as a whole. Central to the dynamics of the dual core is the enactment of principles through single or multiple institutionalized practices; the discussion treats this feature in some detail, along with the scope and justification of principles.

The Democratic Design Framework: Relational Elements and Guiding Precepts

This chapter describes key aspects of the building and explication of the new democratic design framework, extending the examination of the relations and interactions between the framework’s two core elements, principles and practices. In that context, the chapter explores procedure and proceduralism to ground subsequent accounts of procedural sequencing, ordering, phasing, and incentive effects for democratic designs. The chapter then offers a set of guiding design precepts—factors crucial to the deployment and character of the democratic design framework. The key precepts discussed are systemic design and reflexive design, the latter including the nature and importance of context to design. The complexities—the messiness—of both system and context in reality are covered in some detail.

Design in Practice

This chapter pulls together the different forms of rationale for the democratic design framework, and offers a detailed summary of its core components and their provenance. This summary includes a practical step-by-step guide to democratic design, from definition of the specific political challenge at hand to consideration of the life of specific democratic designs or models. The bulk of the chapter sets out an illustrative case study of the application of the framework and its guide, focused on democratic challenges and change in the United Kingdom in the light of the principles of equality, resources, citizen engagement, and citizen participation.

Approaches to Democracy

This chapter offers a critique of the current state of play in the study of democracy. It aims to pinpoint both strengths and limitations of current theories and approaches. A broad range of approaches is covered: the discourse of ‘models of democracy’; the conception of ‘liberal democracy’ that prevails in the comparative study of democratic states and democratization; the deliberative model; normative political philosophy approaches; the world of ‘democratic innovations’, including direct and participative innovations; and recent ‘pragmatic’ and problem-driven approaches. The chapter identifies through these critiques a set of lessons to carry forward, including key points about embracing plurality and the role of experimentation in rethinking democracy.

Design Thinking for Democracy

This chapter recounts the key features of design thinking that can, and should, have an impact on our thinking about designing democracy. The expansion of ‘design thinking’ and ‘design studies’ in recent years is examined in some detail to draw out promising insights for work on democracy. Designers today are turning attention to systems design, rather than focusing exclusively on material artefacts. After looking at the limitations of current democratic theory invocations of ‘design’, the chapter unpacks the meanings of design. From discussion of central features of design—its character and scope, functions and purposes, and modes of reasoning—the chapter concludes with a summary of the main implications for democratic thinking.

The Work of Democratic Design

This chapter explores the nature of specific democratic designs or plans. The latter are understood as particular, first-order conceptions of democracy emerging from systematic application of the democratic design framework to a given set of democratic concerns or challenges. The chapter discusses types of design (e.g. hybrids and transfers), and poses the question of agency—who designs. Who initiates, adapts, and ‘lives’ designs (can one have both democratic design and democratic design?). It also examines the repertoire of specific political principles, institutions, and devices that make up the raw material of democratic designs, thus underscoring the wide range of design options that are in principle available.

Conclusion

Democratic change or reform is a complex and challenging task. The democratic design framework provides a flexible but clear guide to thinking through the complexities and challenges. The framework is a versatile tool that might be put to work for many different reasons: to aid critical thinking, challenge existing power structures, generate new ideas, facilitate rapid responses, promote critical action, or to make links between different branches of democratic thinking and practice.