ABSTRACT

In the face of increasing political disenchantment, many Western governments have experimented, with innovations which aim to enhance the working and quality of democracy as well as increasing citizens’ political awareness and understanding of political matters.

This text is the most comprehensive account of these various democratic innovations. Written by an outstanding team of international experts it examines the theories behind these democratic innovations, how they have worked in practice and evaluates their success or failure. It explains experiments with new forms of democratic engagement such as:

  • Direct Democracy
  • Deliberative Democracy
  • Co-Governance
  • E-Democracy

Drawing on a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and with a broad range of case studies, this is essential reading for all students of democratic theory and all those with an interest in how we might revitalise democracy and increase citizen involvement in the political process.

chapter |20 pages

Introduction

2 3Curing the democratic malaise with democratic innovations

part I|47 pages

New and old forms of (direct) democracy

chapter 1|16 pages

Implementing popular preferences

Is direct democracy the answer?

chapter 2|17 pages

Direct democracy

The Swiss experience

part II|66 pages

Deliberative democracy

chapter 4|19 pages

Deliberative polling

Reflections on an ideal made practical

part III|72 pages

Comparing innovations

chapter 7|26 pages

Making better citizens?

chapter 8|21 pages

Impacts of democratic innovations in Europe

Findings and desiderata

chapter 9|23 pages

When democratic innovations let the people decide

An evaluation of co-governance experiments

chapter |8 pages

Conclusion

208 209Democratic innovations: Theoretical and empirical challenges of evaluation