Democracy and participation in the twenty-first century.

Democracy is again under attack. Only a small minority, i.e. 19 out of 167 countries can be regarded as full democracies. This themed section with its six contributions is addressing the challenges from different angles: it starts with 'Deliberative Democracy in the Real World. The contribution of the capability approach' by Jean- Michel Bonvin, and is followed by György Széll's 'The Future of Cooperatives and Trade Unions: The Relevance for the Question of Democratization of Society'. 'Public Participation and the Politics of Humiliation' by Dasarath Chetty is the next one. Gloria Ostos conducts a case study of the application of the first international standard ISO 18091:2014 on Quality Management Systems in Local Government. Finally, Jo Morris-Ellis and Heinz Sünker address the issue of children politics, definitely the main issue for the future of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]