Public support for democratic innovations. Does the devil lie in the details?

Abstract

A growing body of literature has developed over recent years in order to understand how much support there is in the public for democratic innovations that are increasing the participation of citizens to policy-making. Moreover, several scholars have attempted to understand what factors were differentiating between citizens in favour of such democratic innovations and those more sceptical about it. One difficulty with most of the current literature, however, is that it does not often allow differentiating in public support for different types of democratic innovation. We still do not know clearly whether the same factors drive support for all forms of democratic innovations (referendums, mini-publics, binding and advisory instruments, at all levels, …) or whether different dynamics are at play for different forms of democratic innovation. Starting from these premises, this panel invites paper presenting research that tries to understand the differences that may exist in public support for different models of democratic innovations. The goal is to contribute to understand whether the details of how democratic innovations are set up would influence how the public evaluate them, or whether all support for democratic innovations is sustained by a general public mood in favour of a greater role for citizens in policy-making.

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