READINGS Why Millions Can Deliberate

Illustration by Andi Lanuza
READINGS
22.02.2026
READINGS Why Millions Can Deliberate
By Nick Vlahos

It Just Requires an Economy That Supports Mass Participation

Please read this essay in its entirety at the Deliberative Democracy Digest. Illustration by Andi Lanuza

The recent language of mass governance associated with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani points toward treating participation as sustained popular involvement in governing itself, through ongoing campaigns, neighborhood-level structures, and participatory democratic processes tied to real policy decisions. What is notable about this is not that it offers a ready-made solution, but that it reopens a question democratic theory has too often closed: how public life might be reorganised so that large numbers of people can participate meaningfully.

Please read this essay in its entirety at the Deliberative Democracy Digest 

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Nick Vlahos is Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy Innovation, at the National Civic League (U.S.)

He holds a PhD in political science from York University, specializing in the interconnection between political economy, decentralization, and deliberative democratization. Nick recently published a book entitled The Political Economy of Devolution in Britain from the Postwar Era to Brexit. He also writes about how public participation and deliberation can elevate social well-being by mobilizing problem-solving strategies facing local areas and (re)build better connections to elected officials and formal political institutions.

Previously, Nick was a fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, at the University of Australia leading an international research and civic engagement initiative called Connecting to Parliament. He is a member of the Democracy R&D network and the participatory governance cluster of Participedia. Nick also worked on the ground in Alexandra Park, a social housing revitalization neighborhood in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, leading tenant engagement, including participatory budgeting concerning capital infrastructure. In addition, Nick was part of the first Bloomberg Philanthropy innovation team in Canada, working on a project concerning civic engagement with underrepresented populations at the City of Toronto’s Civic Innovation Office.