Complex Democracy : An Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the present volume, which originated at a Berlin symposium in 2013, on the occasion of Gerhard Lehmbruch’s 85th birthday. The chapter presents Gerhard Lehmbruch as an early pioneer of complexity thinking in the context of democratic theory. Such a complexity perspective suggests that democratic political systems cannot be reduced to purely electoral systems; rather, they are vertically and horizontally differentiated communication systems in which different organizational levels (intermediary organizations) and different forms of interest intermediations interact. Besides the electoral channel of territorial interest intermediation there are multiple channels of functional intermediation in which organized actors and other private interests are incorporated into policy-making. This understanding of ‘complex democracy’ permeates the present volume in which 17 original contributions focus on one of the three key aspects of the study of complex democracy: 1. the structural and institutional variety of existing democratic systems; 2. the ways in which democratic systems are affected by and respond to contemporary economic and financial crisis; 3. the long-term transformations of democratic systems, both in institutional terms as well as regarding its implications for policy.