Examining Elections

David van Reybrouck is a Belgian author, historian, archaeologist, and the National Endowment for the Humanities / Hannah Arendt Center Fellow at Bard College in New York. He and Andrew Keen take a multifaceted approach to deliberative democracy and the structural challenges of democratic practices today. Are elections as we know them today indispensable to democracy? Are there other kinds of decision-making processes that can empower citizens instead of elevating elites? Keen and van Reybrouck reflect on the philosophical underpinnings of representative democracy, discuss the latest developments in deliberative democracy and citizens' assemblies, and consider the state of political communication and citizenship today.