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# Rikki Dean

Research on democratic systems

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://rikkidean.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog Archive](https://rikkidean.com/blog/) - A collection of my blog posts from other politics and policy blogs, along with less developed thoughts and announcements about new projects, publications and events.
- [Political Process Preferences in Europe: Rethinking Conceptual, Ontological and Methodological Foundations - A New Project](https://rikkidean.com/poppie_announcement/) - My project Political Process Preferences in Europe: Rethinking Conceptual, Ontological and Methodological Foundations (or PoPPiE for short) has been funded as one of the 2024 European Research Council Starting Grants. Below is a short description of what the project is about.
- [Spotlighting the Backstage Governance of Citizens Assemblies](https://rikkidean.com/spotlighting-the-backstage/) - Most attention on citizens assemblies understandably focuses on what happens on stage. What do the participants discuss and how deliberative are their interactions? But what happens on stage is in large part shaped by what is happening behind the scenes - for example, who decides what the agenda for discussion is, and how? In a new report from the Global Citizens' Assemblies Network (GloCAN), we examine these backstage governance practices in cases from across the world and ask what they tell us about how to organise a global assembly.
- [Are Democratic Innovations Changing Bureaucracy? New Podcast Episode](https://rikkidean.com/are-democratic-innovations-changing-bureaucracy/) - Stephen Elstub and I joined Roberto Falanga on Episode 4 of the Democratic Innovations Podcast to discuss the implications of democratic innovations for public administration.
- [Postdoc Postion at the Democratic Innovations Research Unit](https://rikkidean.com/diru-postdoc/) - Brigitte Geissel is currently hiring for a position in the Democratic Innovations Research Unit. This is my old job and I had a great experience, so I highly recommend applying. Job advert is below
- [PhD Position on the i4i Project](https://rikkidean.com/phd-position-on-the-i4i-project/) - We are currently hiring in the Democratic Innovations Research Unit for a Doctoral Researcher to come and work with us on the DFG-funded i4i project. If you are interested in working with me and Brigitte Geissel to investigate how the integration of citizen climate assemblies into the political system affects their impacts, then you can find the full job advert below.
- [Postdoc Position on the INSPIRE Project](https://rikkidean.com/postdoc-position-on-the-inspire-project/) - We are currently hiring in the Democratic Innovations Research Unit for a Postdoctoral Researcher to come and work with us on the Horizon-funded INSPIRE project. If you are interested in working with me and Brigitte Geissel to understand participatory processes capacity to realise inclusion, then see the full job advert below
- [Bürgerräte und Nachhaltigkeit](https://rikkidean.com/burgerraete-und-nachhaltigkeit/) - Ende des Jahres 2023 nahm ich an einem Rundtischgespräch im Forum Nachhaltigkeit an der Universität Würzburg über die Rolle der Bürgerräte in der gesellschaftlichen Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit teil. Im Folgenden finden Sie eine Abschrift meines Eröffnungsvortrags.
- [What is the Nature of a Political Process Preference? The 3Cs Framework as a New Multidimensional Conceptualization](https://rikkidean.com/3cs-framework/) - Introducing the 3Cs Framework, which tries to map out three dimensions necessary to understand the nature of a political process preference: coherence, contextuality, conditionality. This is a development of my previous 2022 ECPR Conference paper. You can download the new version from this blog post.
- [Are elections a means to avoid difficult collective decisions about how we want to be governed? Some rough thoughts inspired by Michael Sandel.](https://rikkidean.com/elections_avoidance_sandel/) - I am scribbling down these thoughts following a lecture at Goethe University by Michael Sandel on Democracies’ Discontents. There were two important but disconnected points in the lecture, which inspired a chain of thoughts for me on the nature of elections as an avoidance mechanism.
- [Four Reasons Not to Use ChatGPT in University Teaching](https://rikkidean.com/four-reasons-not-to-use-chatgpt-in-university-teaching/) - These are some reflections stimulated by a course I recently attended on AI in university teaching, where many of my colleagues spoke about getting students to work with the outputs of AI, like ChatGPT. There is an opportunity cost with these activities - time spent working with AI output is time that could have been spent analysing academic sources – so we need to think about whether it is a valuable use of teaching time. I am initially sceptical. These are my reasons.
- [Comparative Democracy Podcasts](https://rikkidean.com/comparative-democracy-podcasts/) - To celebrate the new English-language MA in Comparative Democracy at Goethe University Frankfurt, Hanna Pfeifer, Julian Garritzmann and I took over the Talk Social Science To Me Podcast and produced three episodes on key themes in the field. All episodes are now available on your favourite podcast provider or click on the links below.
- [Can citizen deliberation address the climate crisis? Not if it is disconnected from politics and policymaking](https://rikkidean.com/can-citizen-deliberation-address-the-climate-crisis/) - A large number of national climate assemblies have been set up across Europe to enable citizens to make climate policy recommendations. But do these bodies have any impact? Drawing on new research, John Boswell, Rikki Dean and Graham Smith argue that greater attention should be paid to how these assemblies can be integrated into the world of politics.
- [From an Ideological to a Contingent Conceptualisation of Political Process Preferences: A Multidimensional Approach](https://rikkidean.com/ecpr_2022/) - Next week at the ECPR Annual Conference in Innsbruck I will present my new working paper, which develops a multidimensional framework for understanding the nature of a political process preference. You can download the full paper from this blog post.
- [What are "Democratic Innovations"?](https://rikkidean.com/what-are-democratic-innovations/) - I was the guest for the June episode of the new podcast from Goethe University, Talk Social Science To Me. The main theme was to discuss new ways of involving citizens in democracy, but the conversation led us to many topics, ranging from the effects of the pandemic on democratic governance to the role of democracies in the climate crisis. The podcast is now available on Spotify, Youtube and other podcast providers.
- [On embedding participatory governance: A new symposium of Critical Policy Studies](https://rikkidean.com/on-embedding-participatory-governance/) - Embeddedness is often invoked as a goal for participatory governance, but it tends to remain vaguely defined. So what does embedding participation mean? And how is it achieved? Sonia Bussu, Adrian Bua, Graham Smith and I convened this symposium in Critical Policy Studies in order to explore these questions through case studies from around the world.
- [How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the EU Referendum (sort of)](https://rikkidean.com/stop-worrying-love-referendum/) - When discussing the EU referendum it’s become fashionable to criticise David Cameron for taking a dangerous gamble with the UK’s prosperity for narrow political advantage. The argument runs that the decision on whether to stay in or exit the EU is so complex that it should be left to political elites. Here, Rikki Dean argues that this is old-fashioned thinking. The referendum is not the problem – the campaigns are.
- [Leadership and the hidden politics of co-produced research](https://rikkidean.com/leadership-and-the-hidden-politics-of-co-produced-research/) - What are the hidden politics of seeking to co-produce research with stakeholders? What kinds of leadership are common in co-produced research? What trade-offs does each kind of leadership make in addressing issues such as being directive, inclusive, innovative, accountable, open to what emerges and sharing power?
- [Untangling description, deception and denunciation: a linguistic twist to the Science of Democracy](https://rikkidean.com/untangling-description-deception-and-denunciation-a-linguistic-twist-to-the-science-of-democracy/) - Jean-Paul Gagnon has amassed over 4,000 ‘linguistic artefacts’ into a data mountain of descriptions of democracy. Yet, I note, a sustained consideration of these linguistic artefacts as language is missing from his Science of Democracy and the responses to it.
- [Some rough, pessimistic thoughts on the political economy problem of climate assemblies](https://rikkidean.com/some-rough-pessimistic-thoughts-on-the-political-economy-problem-of-climate-assemblies/) - Across advanced democracies citizens’ assemblies on climate change – randomly selected, deliberative initiatives of usually between 100-200 people – are increasingly being adopted in the hope that they can address democratic politics current failures on climate policy. My fear is that, as institutional design solutions to what is more a problem of political economy, these climate assemblies are destined to fail. But I share these rough thoughts in the hope that more optimistic readers might convince me that I am wrong.
- [Leadership in Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-production](https://rikkidean.com/leadership-in-transdisciplinary-knowledge-co-production/) - How can we broaden the range of actors involved in the solving complex problem of generating sustainable urban communities? A new, open access book on Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-production gives a detailed account of the methods, with a contribution from Catherine Durose, Beth Perry, Liz Richardson and I on leadership in co-production.
- ['Demokratie' als politischer Kampfbegriff](https://rikkidean.com/demokratie-als-politischer-kampfbegriff/) - Wie können wir erkennen, wenn den Begriff 'Demokratie' missbraucht wird? In einem Kapitel des neues Buchs Sprachgewalt von David Ranan, versuchen Jonathan Rinne und ich diese Frage zu beantworten.
- [What is Democratic Theory? A New Special Issue](https://rikkidean.com/what-is-democratic-theory/) - A new special issue of the journal Democratic Theory, co-edited with Jean-Paul Gagnon and Hans Asenbaum, tackles the question of "What is democratic theory?". It is a surprisingly infrequently posed question in the field. With contributions from Michael Saward, John Keane, Carole Pateman, Graham Smith and many others.
- [An Update on Adolescent Social Exclusion in the UK](https://rikkidean.com/an-update-on-adolescent-social-exclusion-in-the-uk/) - After a decade of progress on teenage pregnancy, youth crime and other indicators of adolescent social exclusion, the trend is beginning to reverse.
- [Bürgerrat Demokratie: Abschlussbericht der wissenschaftlichen Evaluation](https://rikkidean.com/burgerrat-demokratie-abschlussbericht-der-wissenschaftlichen-evaluation/) - Der Abschlussbericht fasst die Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Evaluation des Beteiligungsverfahrens „Bürgerrat Demokratie“ durch die Forschungsstelle Demokratische Innovationen der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main zusammen, die den Beteiligungsprozess ab Juni 2019 bis November 2019 begleitete. 
- [Can Participatory Impeachment Defend Democracy from Partisan Justice?](https://rikkidean.com/can-participatory-impeachment-defend-democracy-from-partisan-justice-political-studies-association/) - Why is it that, in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, his co-conspirators participated as both judge and jury in the process? This would not be an acceptable way to organise a legal trial, so why does it make sense for ‘political trials’? One answer to the question is simply bad institutional design. So how can we redesign our democratic institutions to avoid this situation, where justice, rather than being blind, is determined by partisan blinkers?
- [Democracy matters, but how?](https://rikkidean.com/democracy-matters-but-how-2/) - The launch of the Democracy Matters report on Citizens' Assemblies in Sheffield and Southampton gives us an opportunity to tease out the different understandings of why 'participation' matters. 
- [There is more than one way to involve the public in policy decisions](https://rikkidean.com/there-is-more-than-one-way-to-involve-the-public-in-policy-decisions/) - Imagine you are a civil servant. You have just convinced your somewhat skeptical colleagues that your new policy initiative should incorporate extensive public participation in its design process. You now have some tough choices to make: who is going to participate in the process, for example? You know that if you keep participation open to all, then the process will be criticized within your department for just involving the usual suspects. But if you restrict participation, to a randomly selected group for instance, then you know there are some influential policy NGOs who will be vocal about their exclusion...
- [There should be greater public involvement in deciding what is a legitimate 'nudge'](https://rikkidean.com/there-should-be-greater-public-involvement-in-deciding-what-is-a-legitimate-nudge/) - The Coalition Government has been at the forefront of using insights from behavioural research to craft more effective policies, ‘nudging’ citizens in other words. Rikki Dean argues that ‘nudges’, especially those that rely on deception or concealment, should be subject to a ‘participatory principle’. Only citizens themselves can legitimately rule on what is in their own interest, and therefore there should be greater exploration around how to involve the public in decisions about their use.
- [Using Family Breakdown and Addiction as Indicators of Child Poverty is Profoundly Mistaken](https://rikkidean.com/1339-2/) - Rikki Dean argues that the current proposals to develop measures that downplay income and material deprivation in favour of family breakdown and addiction are based on an incoherent conception of poverty that conflates child poverty with child well-being. To argue that family breakdown and addiction are part of the definition of poverty is indicative of prejudice towards the poor. Moreover, the simple truth is that there is little correlation between family structures and poverty.
- [Reflections on the NHS Citizen Process](https://rikkidean.com/reflections-on-the-nhs-citizen-process/) - These are some of my reflections on trying to create a participatory process to involve people in the NHS England's policy formation called "NHS Citizen". The thoughts are based on observing an open design meeting held in Bristol on 22-23 October 2013.
- [Designing the NHS Citizens Assembly](https://rikkidean.com/designing-the-nhs-citizens-assembly/) - This post is a response to Sonia Bussu's recent blog outlining two potential models for the NHS Citizens' Assembly; the first a deliberative polling approach to informing the overall strategic direction of the NHS; the second, a collaborative problem-solving approach between the Board and citizens.
- [NHS Citizen and what it tells us about designing democratic innovations as deliberative systems](https://rikkidean.com/nhs-citizen-and-what-it-tells-us-about-designing-democratic-innovations-as-deliberative-systems/) - Rikki Dean, John Boswell and Graham Smith analyse an attempt to design a systems-oriented democratic innovation: the NHS Citizen initiative. They write that, while the initiative pioneered some cutting-edge participatory design, it failed to resolve well-known obstacles to institutionalisation. They argue that similar projects must evolve strategies to meet such challenges.
- [Five Lessons for Democracy From the Covid-19 Pandemic: An International Evaluation of Democracy in Crises](https://rikkidean.com/five-lessons-for-democracy-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-an-international-evaluation-of-democracy-in-crises/) - Who could have guessed, even one year ago, that America’s postal service would be central to the US Presidential Election? That political party conventions would become online events? Or that protests could be suppressed in the name of biosecurity and protesters could be fined for not wearing face masks? The COVID-19 pandemic has had myriad unpredictable impacts on democratic institutions around the world...

## Pages

- [Home](https://rikkidean.com/) - Rikki Dean - Researching and teaching democratic systems theory, participatory governance, and political process preferences.
- [Political Process Preferences](https://rikkidean.com/projects/political-process-preferences/) - Projects and posts related to the research theme political process preferences. Includes projects on democratic preferences and participatory governance preferences
- [Publications](https://rikkidean.com/publications/) - A comprehensive list of my journal articles, book chapters and other writing, with links to open access versions.
- [About](https://rikkidean.com/about/) - ABOUT ME I am Associate Professor in Politics and Co-Director of the Centre for Democratic Futures at the University of Southampton and Visiting Professor at the Democratic Innovations Research Unit at Goethe University Frankfurt. I lead the Integrating Citizen Deliberation for Impact (i4i) Project, funded by the German, Polish and Belgian Science Foundations, as well
- [Teaching](https://rikkidean.com/teaching/) - Overview of current courses, supervision and past teaching.
- [Deliberation](https://rikkidean.com/projects/deliberation/) - Projects and posts related to the research theme deliberation. Including projects on the Buergerrat Demokratie and NHS Citizen.
- [Participatory Governance](https://rikkidean.com/projects/participatory-governance/) - Projects and posts related to the research theme participatory governance. Includes projects on democratising bureaucracy and embedding participation.
- [Presentations](https://rikkidean.com/presentations/) - An overview of my academic and public presentations, with links to recordings where available.
- [Democratic Theory](https://rikkidean.com/projects/democratic-theory/) - Projects and posts related to the research theme of democratic theory. Includes projects on democratic systems theory and COVID-19 and democracy.
- [Projects](https://rikkidean.com/projects/) - Projects on five themes: democratic theory; political process preferences; participatory governance; deliberation; and social exclusion.
- [Social Exclusion](https://rikkidean.com/projects/social-exclusion/) - Projects and posts related to the research theme social exclusion. Including a project on New Labour's policies to tackle adolescent disadvantage.

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://rikkidean.com/category/uncategorized/)
- [Social Policy](https://rikkidean.com/category/social-policy/)
- [Deliberation](https://rikkidean.com/category/deliberation/)
- [Participatory Governance](https://rikkidean.com/category/participatory-governance/)
- [Democratic Theory](https://rikkidean.com/category/dem-theory/)
- [Political Process Preferences](https://rikkidean.com/category/ppp/)
- [Social Exclusion](https://rikkidean.com/category/social-exclusion/)
- [Publication](https://rikkidean.com/category/new-pub/)
- [Project](https://rikkidean.com/category/new-project/)
- [Co-production in research](https://rikkidean.com/category/co-production-in-research/)
- [Research Methods](https://rikkidean.com/category/research-methods/)
- [Teaching](https://rikkidean.com/category/teaching/)

## Tags

- [Poverty](https://rikkidean.com/tag/poverty/)
- [Poverty measurement](https://rikkidean.com/tag/poverty-measurement/)
- [family breakdown](https://rikkidean.com/tag/family-breakdown/)
- [Nudge](https://rikkidean.com/tag/nudge/)
- [Behavioural Public Policy](https://rikkidean.com/tag/behavioural-public-policy/)
- [Citizen Participation](https://rikkidean.com/tag/citizen-participation/)
- [NHS Citizen](https://rikkidean.com/tag/nhs-citizen/)
- [Health Policy](https://rikkidean.com/tag/health-policy/)
- [NHS](https://rikkidean.com/tag/nhs/)
- [Citizens Assembly](https://rikkidean.com/tag/citizens-assembly/)
- [Deliberation](https://rikkidean.com/tag/deliberation/)
- [Brexit](https://rikkidean.com/tag/brexit/)
- [EU Referendum](https://rikkidean.com/tag/eu-referendum/)
- [Covid-19 Pandemic](https://rikkidean.com/tag/covid-19-pandemic/)
- [Emergency Politics](https://rikkidean.com/tag/emergency-politics/)
- [Impeachment](https://rikkidean.com/tag/impeachment/)
- [Counter-governance](https://rikkidean.com/tag/counter-governance/)
- [Corruption](https://rikkidean.com/tag/corruption/)
- [Sortition](https://rikkidean.com/tag/sortition/)
- [Democratic erosion](https://rikkidean.com/tag/democratic-erosion/)
- [Deliberative Systems](https://rikkidean.com/tag/deliberative-systems/)
- [DWP](https://rikkidean.com/tag/dwp/)
- [Referendums](https://rikkidean.com/tag/referendums/)
- [Participation Typology](https://rikkidean.com/tag/participation-typology/)
- [Agonism](https://rikkidean.com/tag/agonism/)
- [Bürgerräte](https://rikkidean.com/tag/burgerrate/)
- [Teenage Pregnancy](https://rikkidean.com/tag/teenage-pregnancy/)
- [Youth Crime](https://rikkidean.com/tag/youth-crime/)
- [NEET](https://rikkidean.com/tag/neet/)
- [Democracy](https://rikkidean.com/tag/democracy/)
- [China](https://rikkidean.com/tag/china/)
- [Hungary](https://rikkidean.com/tag/hungary/)
- [Coproduction](https://rikkidean.com/tag/coproduction/)
- [Leadership](https://rikkidean.com/tag/leadership/)
- [Knowledge Production](https://rikkidean.com/tag/knowledge-production/)
- [Research Methods](https://rikkidean.com/tag/research-methods/)
- [Inequality](https://rikkidean.com/tag/inequality/)
- [Representation](https://rikkidean.com/tag/representation/)
- [Climate Change](https://rikkidean.com/tag/climate-change/)
- [Democratic Theory](https://rikkidean.com/tag/democratic-theory/)
- [Science of Democracy](https://rikkidean.com/tag/science-of-democracy/)
- [Co-produced research](https://rikkidean.com/tag/co-produced-research/)
- [Teaching](https://rikkidean.com/tag/teaching/)
- [AI](https://rikkidean.com/tag/ai/)
- [ChatGPT](https://rikkidean.com/tag/chatgpt/)
- [Process Preferences](https://rikkidean.com/tag/process-preferences/)