Democratic Innovations to Manage Planetary Challenges

Abstract

Democratic innovations promise to bring multiple advantages to democratic systems, including increased trust and legitimacy in institutions, empowered citizens, diversification of voices in policymaking, and overcoming of challenges to representation, especially in situations where traditional democratic institutions have been considered limited or ineffective. And, we have evidence that under certain conditions some of these promises can be realised. But existing scholarship has tended to focus on small-scale and generally successful cases of participatory and deliberative democracy. However, ongoing global threats, ranging from war, pandemics and the climate and ecological crises to democratic backsliding and the rise in authoritarianism raise the question: (how) can democratic innovations help manage global crises and planet-wide challenges? The panel invites contributions that consider the role of democratic innovations in finding and enacting solutions to global problems. We welcome theoretical and empirical reflections on the extent to which participatory and deliberative processes can support transnational and global decision-making, what such processes can or should look like, and the types and extent of institutional reforms needed to enact them.

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