To tackle the crises facing representative democracies, one must go back to the roots of the democratic ideal. In an ideal context, civic engagement, public deliberation, and collective intelligence can be deployed at the local level.

Jonathan Durand Folco is Assistant Professor at the Élisabeth Bruyère School of Social Innovation at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. His research focuses on participatory democracy, municipal politics, commons, and the ecological transition. He is the author of the book À nous la ville ! Traité de municipalisme (Écosociété, 2017), co-author of Manuel pour changer le monde(Lux, 2020) and editor of Montréal en chantier: les défis d'une métropole pour le xxie siècle (Écosociété, 2021).