Democracy and Innovation

Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Working Paper No. 514

10 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2010

Date Written: September 27, 2010

Abstract

Self-determination in politics has become the ideal everybody accepts. This paper argues that such contentment undermines the very idea of democracy. Democracy should be open to criticism and change. Two possible developments are considered: (a) More political power should be given to the citizens. Direct democracy is the appropriate form of democracy for the 21st century. (b) Many innovations are possible in democracy. The focus is on the potential role of random mechanisms to secure that the population is more fully represented in the political process both with respect to the persons in politics and the decisions taken.

JEL Classification: D7, D78, O31

Suggested Citation

Frey, Bruno S., Democracy and Innovation (September 27, 2010). Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Working Paper No. 514, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1709311 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1709311

Bruno S. Frey (Contact Author)

CREMA ( email )

Südstrasse 11
Zurich, CH 8008
Switzerland
+41 44 380 00 78 (Phone)

University of Basel ( email )

Peter Merian-Weg 6
Basel, 4002
Switzerland

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
92
Abstract Views
947
Rank
506,051
PlumX Metrics