Project: 'Collective Participation in Epistemic Theories of Democracy'

At a time when truth in politics seems to be disappearing, and correct decision making appears to be more important than ever, it is paramount that we can accurately model the ways in which democracies are able to make, or approximate making, correct or truthful decisions. This is precisely the aim of epistemic theories of democracy. My research project focuses on the role of collective participation in contributing to the epistemic powers of democracy.

Most epistemic accounts of democracy are methodologically individualistic, focusing on the exchange of reasons between individual agents. Because of this, most theorists of the epistemic features of democracy point to the potential epistemic failures associated with collective or solidary participation; the exclusionary and often strategic nature of this kind of participation is associated with an increased risk of polarisation, or echo-chamber effects.

As a consequence, the potential epistemic benefits of strategic and exclusionary participation in democratic spheres are often ignored: collective participation might allow marginalised groups to increase their organisational capacity and identify different or novel features of the political landscape, for example. Because of this theoretical lacuna, however, we still have few resources to make sense of what role collective participation might play in approximating correct or truthful democratic decision making.

My project seeks to fill this gap in the literature by approaching the epistemic powers of democracy from the perspective of the collective, in contrast to the individualistic methods commonly employed. My approach is historical, drawing primarily on the work of Antonio Gramsci who articulates a distinctive account of politics that is deeply marked by the value of solidarity and the collective articulation of claims about the world.

My research seeks to demonstrate that if we are committed to offering accounts of the ways that democratic institutions can perform in epistemically productive ways, and if we accept that collective agents might introduce valuable perspectives to deliberative processes, then we must offer a thoroughgoing account of the role of collective participation in epistemic theories of democracy. That is to say that my project will seek to demonstrate the epistemic value of collective or solidary processes, and will attempt to articulate an attractive account of the value of solidarity for epistemic theories of democracy.