Arendt and the Current Participatory Moment

Abstract

The chapter discusses experiments in participatory democracy that have been taking place in the last three decades, which have essentially revived the council tradition on a local level, often with impressive success. It argues that Arendt’s political theory may help us re-think these experiments, their meaning and achievements and that at the same time, these experiments should make us re-consider the prospects for participatory democracy of the kind proposed by Arendt.