Te Tiriti o Waitangi and democracy: Five perspectives on the case for democratic innovation in Aotearoa New Zealand

The idea of democracy as a system of governance “ of the people, by the people, for the people ” (Lincoln, 1863) has been tainted by the skewed structures of representation that systematically shut out minority and subaltern groups from being part of what is constituted as “ the people. ” Most recently, this has been exacerbated by the rise of populism in different parts of the world where democracy has been hijacked by majoritarian groups claiming to represent a collective notion of “ the people ” fi ghting against perceived threats from those deemed to be the ‘ other ’ . Although state apparatuses