Democratic Innovations and Contemporary Challenges: Questions of Demand and Design

Abstract

Democratic innovations, from citizens’ assemblies to participatory budgeting, have received growing interest among academics and policymakers in recent years. Advocates highlight their potential to transfer deliberative and participatory ideals from theory to practice and, in turn, help address significant challenges facing contemporary democratic political systems. However, democratic innovations remain relatively novel tools in democratic decision-making, and setting them up involves a host of considerations. For instance, is there sustained and widespread public demand for greater citizen involvement in democratic decision-making, particularly from those who feel the most marginalised? And how, if at all, can such initiatives be designed to help maximise support across different social and political divisions, at both elite and popular levels? This panel focuses on these twin aspects of democratic innovations – questions of demand and design – in different contexts, from different perspectives, and using different methodologies. The goal is to better understand the specific conditions in which democratic innovations may effectively address certain democratic challenges, as well as the consequences of important design choices that organisers must make.

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