Albert W. Dzur – författare

In our current era of deep distrust in our politics and political institutions, there is also a pervasive sense that social problems are so overwhelmingly complex that it is virtually impossible to solve them. In Democracy Inside, Albert W. Dzur looks at recent instances of effective citizen action across the United States to develop a grounded political theory of democratic change, one in which citizens effectively engage with institutions. Drawing on qualitative interviews with practitioners involved in democratic schools, restorative and community justice, and collaborative city governance, Dzur stresses that we need to turn to ordinary, daily life and focus on how "democratic professionals" are breaking down barriers and bring people into decision-making processes at the granular level. These reformers are not transforming high politics or national-scale institutions, but they have been effective at changing the routine, everyday practices where people live and work. As Democracy Inside shows, if we really want to expand the democracy and build citizen engagement intensity in American life, we need to look beyond traditional politics and transform our classrooms, courtrooms, and offices into accessible civic spaces.

In our current era of deep distrust in our politics and political institutions, there is also a pervasive sense that social problems are so overwhelmingly complex that it is virtually impossible to solve them. In Democracy Inside, Albert W. Dzur looks at recent instances of effective citizen action across the United States to develop a grounded political theory of democratic change, one in which citizens effectively engage with institutions. Drawing on qualitative interviews with practitioners involved in democratic schools, restorative and community justice, and collaborative city governance, Dzur stresses that we need to turn to ordinary, daily life and focus on how "democratic professionals" are breaking down barriers and bring people into decision-making processes at the granular level. These reformers are not transforming high politics or national-scale institutions, but they have been effective at changing the routine, everyday practices where people live and work. As Democracy Inside shows, if we really want to expand the democracy and build citizen engagement intensity in American life, we need to look beyond traditional politics and transform our classrooms, courtrooms, and offices into accessible civic spaces.

Government and market failures spur many citizens to practical action today. Around the globe people form renewable energy cooperatives, provide support for marginalized populations, and deliver alternative justice and care services. What motivates citizens to begin such practical problem-solving? How do they engage others? What knowledge do they generate? How do they interact with state and market actors? What risks and opportunities do they hold for contemporary democracy? To answer these questions, Dzur and Hendriks develop the concept of citizens' governance space to delineate these efforts from contentious social movements, formal civic associations and local community organizations. Drawing on cases from around the globe, the authors examine how citizens do functional policy work, develop and disrupt knowledge, and selectively partner with governments and corporations. They reveal complexities and risks posed by citizens' governance spaces while also showing how they offer a distinct form of democratic participation centered on practical efforts and outcomes. Democracy in Action provides a new lens for recognizing and understanding the more practical ways that citizens contribute to governance and democracy.

Focusing contemporary democratic theory on the neglected topic of punishment, Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury argues for increased civic engagement in criminal justice as an antidote to the American penal state. Albert W. Dzur considers how the jury, rather than merely expressing unreflective public opinion, may serve as a participatory institution that gathers and utilizes citizen's juridical capabilities. In doing so, the book resists trends in criminal justice scholarship that blame increases in penal severity on citizen participation and rejects political theorists' longstanding skepticism of lay abilities. Dzur distinguishes constructive citizen involvement that takes responsibility for public problems from a mass politics mobilized superficially around single issues. This more positive view of citizen action, which was once a major justification for the jury trial, is now also manifest in the restorative justice movement, which has incorporated lay people into community boards and sentencing circles. Both jury trials and restorative justice programs, Dzur explains, are examples of rational disorganization, in which lay citizen action renders a process less efficient yet also contributes valuable qualities such as attunement, reflectiveness, and full-bodied communication. While restorative justice programs and participatory policy forums such as citizens' juries have become attractive to reformers, traditional juries have suffered a steep and troubling decline. Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury advocates a broader role for jurors in the criminal courts and more widespread use of jury trials. Though no panacea for a political culture grown too comfortable with criminalization and incarceration, participatory institutional designs that rationally disorganize punishment practices and slow down criminal justice can increase civic responsibility and public awareness about the need to find alternative paths forward for America's broken penal system.

Bringing expert knowledge to bear in an open and deliberative way to help solve pressing social problems is a major concern today, when technocratic and bureaucratic decision making often occurs with little or no input from the general public. Albert Dzur proposes an approach he calls “democratic professionalism” to build bridges between specialists in domains like law, medicine, and journalism and the lay public in such a way as to enable and enhance broader public engagement with and deliberation about major social issues. Sparking a critical and constructive dialogue among social theories of the professions, professional ethics, and political theories of deliberative democracy, Dzur reveals interests, motivations, strengths, and vulnerabilities in conventional professional roles that provide guideposts for this new approach. He then applies it in examining three practical arenas in which experiments in collaboration and power-sharing between professionals and citizens have been undertaken: public journalism, restorative justice, and the bioethics movement. Finally, he draws lessons from these cases to refine this innovative theory and identify the kinds of challenges practitioners face in being both democratic and professional.