Democratic experimentalism and the futures of crime control: Resources of hope for demotic times

The ‘resources of hope’ which the socialist thinker Raymond Williams searched for in his last works seem to be in short supply. The authors suggest that, in recent times, many commentators, especially those writing as professional criminologists in the privileged yet pessimistic circumstances of the global North, have found their view of radical democratic aspiration blocked by the long shadows of mass incarceration, and other seemingly immoveable objects. In this chapter they draw upon vigorous but less-widely consulted traditions of thought in order to argue that more refreshing and incisive ways of engaging with contemporary problems can be imagined. They argue that pragmatist contributions to democratic theory provide powerful arguments for extending democratic participation, and begin to sketch some implications of this view for democratic practice with respect to the criminal question.