Populism, Epistemic Democracy and the Quality of Government

Research seminar with Bo Rothstein, Professor of Political Science, and affiliated researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies. A special branch of political philosophy deals with the issue of the

This paper discusses and aims to explain the emergence of foresight activities in Swedish government authorities, including environmental scanning and analysis, futures studies and other activities tr

Bo Rothstein: Is there a contradiction between democracy and quality of government?

Most definitions of democracy rely on a set of procedural rules for how political power should be accessed legitimately. The basic norm for these procedural rules is according to noted democracy theor

Place: At the Institute for Futures Studies, Holländargatan 13, Stockholm, or online. REGISTER for on site or online participation Abstract A special branch of political philosophy deals with the issue of

Svallfors, Stefan (Red.) Contested Welfare States? Welfare Attitudes in Europe and Beyond Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012, s 158-192.

European Political Science Review, Vol 5 (2013), pp 363-80. First published online July 16, 2012, doi:10.1017/S175577391200015X. The paper analyses how perceptions of government quality – in terms of i

During the Swedish politician's week in Visby, the government decided to appoint a scientific council for sustainable development. The council will strengthen the link between politics and academia. Th

Research seminar with Bo Rothstein.AbstractMost definitions of democracy rely on a set of procedural rules for how political power should be accessed legitimately. The basic norm for these procedural ru realized by equal democratic rights. In this understanding of political legitimacy, democracy is a “partisan game” where various interests are given fair possibilities to compete for political power. The concept of “quality of government” relates to the legitimacy in the of political power and is based on the norm of  that is the opposite of partisanship. This is to be realized by, for example, the rule of law and a public administration built on meritocracy. Several tensions between these two bases for achieving political legitimacy will be present. For example, a democratically elected government may want to politicize the public administration and may establish public services and benefits directed only to their political supporters. The rule of law includes the principle of equality before the law, but a democratically elected government may take actions that put itself “above” the law. Various empirical measures and philosophical principles for understanding these type of tensions between democracy and the quality of government will be presented in this lecture.

Stockholm Research Reports in Demography no. 2020:52 AbstractThe world is rapidly converging towards lower fertility: in 2020, countries with a total fertility rate of less than 2.25 will encompass mor

Forensic Art and Documentary Film as Non-Governmental Rights Campaigns: Possibilities and Limitations

This project consists of three research-initiation workshops on aspects of a unifying theme: forensics in art and documentary film.