Democratic Theorising without False Expectations

Political theorists have recently proposed to democratise the theory of democracy. Hans Asenbaum argues that one can learn from the experiences and approaches of democratic innovations. These proposals are to be welcomed and can indeed bring a new quality to democratic theory by making it more inclusive. However, there are some aspects that need to be considered. These include the irreconcilability of power discrepancies in the different stages of participation processes between the actors involved, as well as the clarification of the basic assumptions of democratic theory. This article argues for reflecting on these inequalities in the distribution of roles and making them, as well as the underlying definitions in participation processes, more transparent. It ends with some reflections to improve and strengthen the idea of democratic theorising.