Opening lecture Social Sciences
To kick off the second year of the Social Sciences programme, Yves Dejaeghere gave an opening lecture at the Social Sciences programme on Monday 18 September 2023. The introduction was done by Prof. dr. Jan Boon, lecturer in Public Administration.
That our democratic institutions are not in a supreme state seems to be one of the few propositions on which politicians, commentators and citizens agree. On the diagnosis of the problem, however, there is less unanimity. Several opinion makers argue for greater citizen involvement in policy.
In this opening lecture, Yves Dejaeghere holds up the idea of democracy as policy "by the people". Elections are the generally accepted way to give shape to this principle, but can we limit the role of citizens to that in 2023? How do we organise these moments of participation? How do principles of representation and legitimacy play a role here? And how do we determine whether or not there is sufficient public support for a certain policy measure? Throughout his lecture, Yves Dejaeghere cites interesting and inspiring foreign experiments and examples.
Yves Dejaeghere is director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy Europe, a European organisation that pools knowledge around civic participation. He is an internationally recognised expert in citizen participation and deliberative democracy. Until 2020, he was coordinator of the Belgian organisation G1000. In this role, he co-designed the world's first permanent elected citizens' council, the so-called Ostbelgien Modell. He is a member of the advisory board for the European Commission on participation and deliberation and also a member of the monitoring committee for the city of Paris for their permanent citizen participation. He previously worked as an academic at KU Leuven and University of Antwerp.
