Roslyn Fuller

Fuller wrote her first novel - ISAK[34] - in 2005 while studying for the Bar Exam in Germany. The novel, which is set in the future, is an allegoric reflection of the issue of international terrorism, in particular questioning what precisely constitutes terrorism and which actions by governments or individuals can be subsumed under the term.

In 2007, parts of the novel were adapted as a stage play performed at the Irish Writers' Centre.[35]

In 2008, Fuller co-founded the Irish Writers' Exchange,[36] an organisation of both Irish authors and writers from around the world who have chosen to make Ireland their home away from home. The group contributes book reviews of current and classic fiction for Dublin-based multi-cultural newspaper Metro Éireann.[37] Fuller and her book ISAK were mentioned in the 2009 edition of German travel guide Marco Polo for Dublin[38]

In 2010 Fuller edited and contributed to Dublin: Ten Journeys, One Destination, a collection of short stories published by the Irish Writers' Exchange.[39][40] In October 2011, the group won a special sponsors award at the MAMA Awards in Dublin.[41]

In 2015 Zed Books published Fuller's academic research into democracy as a general trade book: Beasts and Gods: How Democracy Changed its Meaning and Lost its Purpose.[42] The book is an analysis of the origins of democracy, its modern applications and the resulting loss of "people power". The book has received endorsements from Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole, who called it "a timely and provocative look behind the clichés of Western politics"[43] as well as professor of law Marjorie Cohn and Jillian York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Forbes has called Beasts and Gods "a visionary thought experiment . . . guaranteed to make you think differently about the trillion dollar bureaucracies we call democracy today."[44]

She was interviewed about the book on the Keiser Report,[45] Artist Taxi Driver,[46] This is Hell[47] and The University Times.[48]

In Beast and Gods, Fuller outlines the shortcomings of modern democracy (statistical skewing, corruption, unaccountable politicians) and contrasts the design of modern western democratic systems with both the original democracy in ancient Athens and the Roman Republic, concluding that much of what we think of as democracy today, has in fact, deeply undemocratic, Roman Republican roots. Fuller traces the effects of this democratic deficit from national parliaments to international organisations such as the IMF, World Bank and the UN Security Council.[49]

Fuller then applies the principles of Athenian democracy to modern systems in order to determine how we could use modern information technology to unlock the participatory potential of direct, digital democracy.[50]

In May 2016 Andrew Sullivan published an article in New York Magazine called Democracies end when they are too democratic[51] in which he argued that democracies needed elites to "protect this precious democracy from its own destabilizing excesses." Fuller debated Sullivan in a much-discussed polemic article Democracy — Too Much of a Good Thing?,[52] which was called "an amusing exploration of the topic" by Matt Taibbi[53] and even became the topic of a class assignment at Duke University.[54]

In 2019, Fuller followed up on Beasts and Gods with the publication of In Defence of Democracy,[55] which has received endorsements from Democracy International[56] and was positively reviewed by the Washington Post[57] and the LA Review of Books.[58]

In Defense of Democracy first debunks the theories of academics and writers across the political spectrum who believe that voters are either too stupid, too racist or too crazy for democracy.[59] She argues that these ideas are based on questionable empirical research,[60] and that democracy is not about “right” or “wrong” outcomes, but simply a method of mediating conflict.[61]

Fuller also demonstrates that one of the commonly proposed political reforms – randomly selecting citizens into citizen assemblies or decision-making bodies (also called sortition) – not only misconstrues the role sortition played in the ancient Athenian democracy but ultimately enhances elite control by limiting decisions to small, externally controllable groups.[62] Fuller expanded on this theme in her 2019 article Don’t be fooled by Citizens' Assemblies, published on Unherd.[63]

Finally, Fuller proposes a way forward, using direct, digital democracy to translate the will of the people into policy. Her approach involves five main principles:[64]

1. Mass participation in the form of online voting and deliberation
2. Pay for Participation using a form of Universal Basic Income
3. Tying deliberation to actionable outcomes
4. Informal leadership based on the Athenian concept of rhetors
5. Using sortition, but limited to appointing administrative tasks and positions

In an interview with Forbes,[65] Fuller outlined some of the thought processes behind these principles:

1. Technology for large-scale, direct democracy is less about elections and more about empowering policy debate and decision-making en masse
2. Corrosive political media thrives because virtual conversations are untethered from policy consequences
3. Reforming democracy with technology-scaled participation requires practical citizen education
4. Mass engagement could rebuild fractured communities
5. Transformation will depend on leaders with a vision for challenge and excellence

In 2020 In Defense of Democracy was selected as a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards[66]

Drawing on interviews with current and former adjunct lecturers, Fuller wrote a much-debated article on the exploitation of adjunct academics called Heartbreaking Stories from Academia: America’s Universities Treat Most Faculty Like Peons, and the Results Are Not Pretty. Originally published on Alternet in 2016,[67] the article was subsequently re-printed by Salon[68] and Truthdig.[69]

Fuller also criticized the modern university education systems in an article in the Irish Independent in 2013.[70]