Dieser Band gibt einen Überblick zu den Entwicklungen der Demokratie in den europäischen Ländern und zum europäischen Stand der Forschung.

This book argues that in the digital era, a reinvention of democracy is urgently necessary. It discusses the mounting evidence showing that digitalisation is pushing classical parliamentary democracy to its limits, offering examples such as how living in a filter bubble and debating with political bots is profoundly changing democratic communication, making it more emotional, hysterical even, and less rational. It also explores how classical democracy involves long, slow thinking and decision processes, which don’t fit to the ever-increasing speed of the digital world, and examines the technical developments some fear will lead to governance by algorithms.In the digitalised world, democracy no longer functions as it has in the past. This does not mean waving goodbye to democracy – instead we need to reinvent it. How this could work is the central theme of this book.

In this ground-breaking book, Jörg Radtke offers for the first time within research, a comprehensive insight into the range of organizational structures of community energy projects in Germany and their contribution to the Energiewende. Based on nationwide quantitative survey data and in-depth analyses of selected case studies of solar, wind and geothermal projects, Radtke documents the social structure and motivations of participating citizens. He examines new forms of material participation, community building and co-determination within the mostly volunteer-led community energy projects based on the civic engagement patterns of active “green citizens”. The author identifies a new form of individualistic participation and collective modes of action in line with new types of project-oriented participation between business, politics and civil society within sustainability transformation processes of the early 21st century.

This Palgrave Handbook showcases how the phenomenological approach, especially but not only as developed by Alfred Schutz, can make important contributions to the theoretical analysis of macro-social phenomena such as the state, history, culture and interculturality, class relations and struggles, social movements and protests, capitalism, democracy, and digitalization processes. It gathers systematically and intellectual-historically oriented chapters that deal with these macro social phenomena from a phenomenological perspective. This handbook is mainly intended for a threefold audience: sociologists and social scientists at large – both theoretically and empirically oriented –, phenomenological sociologists, and phenomenological philosophers. This book includes chapters by international renowned specialists in social theory, phenomenological sociology, and phenomenology: Hartmut Rosa (University of Jena), Michael Barber (St. Louis University), Thomas Eberle (University of St. Gallen), Roberto Walton (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Jochen Dreher (University of Konstanz), Chung-Chi YU (National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan), and George Bondor (AI.I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania), among others.

Aspects of political culture, i.e. concerns with the 'subjective' dimension of politics including dominant political orientations, perceptions and interpretations, always have been particularly relevant with regard to the case of Germany and its great variety of political regimes during the last century. This is true both with regard to political science and practical politics. This volume provides a comprehensive overview concerning the major historical legacies, regional and sub-cultural variations, and current problems of democratic orientations, national identity and relationships to the outside world.

This collection provides an up-to-date analysis of key country approaches to Militant Democracy. Featuring contributions from some of the key people working in this area, including Mark Tushnet and Helen Irving, each chapter presents a stocktaking of the legal measures to protect the democracy against its enemies within. In addition to providing a description of the country's view of Militant Democracy and the current situation, it also examines the legal and political provisions to defend the democratic structure against attacks. The discussion also presents proposals for the development of the Militant Democracy principle or its alternatives in policy and legal practice. In the final chapter the editor compares the different arrangements and formulates a minimum consensus as to what measures are indispensable to protect a democracy. Highly topical, this book is a valuable resource for students, academics and policy-makers concerned with democratic principles.