The article tackles the possibilities of designing political institutions that manage to bring our liberal democracies closer to the ideals of modern republicanism. The recent work of Pedro Ibarra Güell , who advances a model of “relational democracy”, will serve as the starting point for our discussion. The dilemmas faced by such a “relational democracy” will be highlighted. Second, the conditions to be fulfilled by such a political model will be specified so that, finally, its plausibility can be assessed by (...) looking at diverse empirical data. (shrink)

This paper discusses the claim that citizens lack sufficient political knowledge to make sound judgements on public matters. It is contended that practical judgements raise essentially two types of claims, namely a claim to empirical truth and a claim to normative rightness, and that there are good reasons to believe that people's insufficient political knowledge undermines both of them. Yet, an examination of the dynamics of public opinion formation reveals that there is an epistemic potential in public opinion, though it (...) is dependent upon the quality of public debate. Building on this idea and on the concept of deliberative responsiveness, two paths of political reform are proposed, which should illustrate the practical implications of the theoretical argument made in this paper by demonstrating how the quality of public debate and, thus, the epistemic value of public opinion could be enhanced. (shrink)