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...system is one that’s founded on debate – on citizens having a say in how they’re governed, and promoting their own political views and ideas via persuasion rather than coercion. It’s also a way of holding those in power to account, raising awareness of issues that are ignored or otherwise dismissed by the government, and of expressing the will of the people when...

...think that is important for women also because it’s a way of constructing women as actors and not just passive victims of discriminatory processes and structures. So we can see citizenship in a sense both as a process in which women although often invisibly are very much involved and as an outcome which women and other disadvantaged groups are still struggling for in...

...systems should create opportunities for citizens to help shape decision about health-care, and that citizens should take them up. Volunteering suffers from similar definitional uncertainty but one excellent overview places it within “a cluster of ‘helping’ activities”. It is this subtle distinction between an empowered and change-oriented model of participation,...

...thinking that democracy is unequivocally a good thing. But is it? Even Winston Churchill, who frequently spoke in favour of the system, stigmatized it as the worst form of government (apart from all the others that have been tried). The great Greek philosopher, Plato, was no fan of democracy. There are a couple of arguments he had against it which have a particular...