On August 31st, at the first ever Dutch Democracy Festival, that took place on the city of Nijmegen's Veur Lent island in the Waal River, philospher Mrs. Daan Roovers (University of Amsterdam) lectured on democracy and the voice of the middle. In her lecture, she advocated nothing less than systemic change. She told the audience of the well-attended lecture that she was in favour of more direct democracy, referring explicitly to Ireland's citizens' assemblies, although she did not mention sortition or lottery explicitly. Mrs. Roovers' contribution was one of the few on the two-day festival addressing deliberative democracy, although there was an interesting session on Deep Democracy, practiced by the Dutch municipality of Heumen. Mrs. Roovers currently holds the biennial honorary title of "Thinker of the Fatherland", awarded by Philosophy Magazine and Trouw, one of the main national newspapers.
(no written source available)
- Source of picture: Wikipedia
- More information on democracy festivals: International Democracy Festivals Association