Democracy, Inequality and Minorities
12th Swiss Summer School on Democracy Studies
Democracy, inequality and minorities
Université de Genève
22-26 June 2026
A major issue in democratic theory and practice is the existence of persistent minorities. Prominent examples include ethnic, linguistic, religious, and geographic minorities, but also citizens whose voices hardly count in elections or referendums because their ideological attitudes repeatedly place them on the losing side of majority decisions.
Given that equality is the grounding and guiding principle of democracy—and hence its core normative promises are the fair treatment of all, coupled with the protection of individual liberties—then we have a problem if groups of citizens, due to their identity traits and/or ideological convictions, are systematically disadvantaged. This concerns both the input and output dimensions of democracy. Consider, for example, the problem of inequalities due to low turnout (both in elections and in referendums) or the existence of electoral discrimination (i.e., when majority voters discriminate against candidates from minority groups). On the output side, majority decisions in referendums can have a negative impact on minorities, whereas their poor descriptive representation as a result of elections typically has a negative impact on their substantive representation and the quality of political decisions.
Through the prism of the role of minorities in a democracy, the 2026 Democracy Summer School explores these issues by examining not only their causes and consequences, but also the institutional design tools (e.g. federalism, electoral system reforms, deliberative minipublics) that can enhance the equality promise of democratic rule.
Keynote speaker
Shaun Bowler University of California, Riverside
Scientific committee: Prof. Nathalie Giger, Prof. Nenad Stojanović
