e-democracy conference [in italy]

Last week was a very busy one. I was in Bologna on Friday presenting my views [and a paper] on electronic democracy at a conference titled 'Tools of democracy'. The conference was organised at the University of Bologna, Dipartimento di Organizzazione e Sistema Politico.

The programme was very focussed, touching upon recent developments in democratic theory [or the lack thereof] and innovations capable [or not] to revive 'democracy'. It was a theoretically thorough day, as Italian political science is one of the main contributors to democratic theory. I found myself looking in amazement at times, as models, concepts and constructs were handled with exceptional competence, precision and relevance. It is not often that this happens at conferences, for lack of time or for the prevalence of 'straw man' empiricism.

Will conclude on Lakatos here:

Mature science consists of research programmes in which not only novel facts but, in an important sense, also novel auxiliary theories, are anticipated; mature science, – unlike pedestrian trial-end-error, has 'heuristic power'

Tools of democracy [Programma in italiano]
Bologna, 25 novembre 2005
Aula dei Poeti, Strada Maggiore 45

Ore 10

Gianfranco Pasquino
Universita' di Bologna
Introduction

Donatella Campus
Universita' di Bologna
Political communication and democracy

Daniela Giannetti
Universita' di Bologna
Deliberative democracy

Wainer Lusoli
University of Chester
E-democracy

12,30 Discussion

13,00 Lunch break

14,30
Pier Vincenzo Uleri
Universita' di Firenze
Referendum

Marco Valbruzzi
Universita' di Bologna
Primaries: a tool for better democracy?

Gianfranco Pasquino
Universita' di Bologna
Innovations in democratic theory

16,45 Discussion