What is democratic theory?

What is democratic theory? The question is surprisingly infrequently posed. Indeed, the last time this precise question appears in the academic archive was exactly forty years ago(1), in James Alfred Pennock’s (1979) book Democratic Political Theory(2). This is an odd discursive silence not observable in other closely aligned fields of thought such as political theory(3), political science(4), social theory(5), philosophy(6), economic theory(7), and public policy/administration(8) – each of which have asked the “what is” question of themselves on regular occasion. The premise of this special issue is, therefore, to pose the question anew and break this forty-year silence.