Republicanism and Political Participation: Republican Elements in the Conception of “Open Democracy”, by Hélène Landemore.

Abstract

The persistent domination of political elites in the contemporary representative governments has led to an intense reflection, in recent years, about the limits and capabilities of democracy as a system of government. Problems such as the persistence of deep social inequalities and the inability to include minorities – and even majorities, as in the Brazilian case – point to a process of “oligarchization” of democracies, marked by an attempt to “political neutralization of the people”, incompatible with republican and democratic values. In a case of such underrepresentation, in which majority sectors of society are systematically governed by minority sectors, how can the ideal of non-domination be ensured? Starting from the verification of the practical limits of contemporary representative governments in general, and of the Brazilian case, in particular, the purpose of this article is to discuss the extent to which Hélène Landemore's proposal of "open democracy", which proposes the recovery of the practice of drawing lots as an expression of the democratic element, is compatible with republican ideas.