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In response to a perceived ‘democratic malaise’ (Dalton 2004, Stoker 2006) the institutionalization of new mechanisms through which citizens can directly take part in the democratic process has become increasingly popular amongst public authorities at different levels of governance. This ECPR Joint Sessions workshop falls on the 25th anniversary of the instigation of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre. It is also over ten years since Archon Fung’s seminal survey article called for greater attention from political theorists and scientists to ‘mini-publics’ that create instances of ‘more perfect public spheres’ (2003). Following these developments a growing research community has begun to analyze such participatory reforms, paying particular attention to their deliberative quality, democratic outcomes and impact on the policy process. However, the question of why participatory reforms have been implemented by some authorities and not by others has been largely neglected. Smith has recently provided a valuable argument for the need to address a gap in the literature, namely the conspicuous absence of systematic comparisons of democratic innovations (c.f. 2009: pp. 8-12). This workshop will contribute to bridging the gap between theory and practice in the field. Three related questions, all of which remain under-examined by the current literature, will be addressed. First, how can we explain adoption of different types of participatory process (e.g. mini-publics, participatory budgeting, etc.)? Second, what institutional, societal and/or political characteristics are associated with the presence and absence of effective participatory governing strategies? And third, what factors affect adoption (or abandonment) of participatory strategies by political authorities? We invite papers from different methodological and theoretical perspectives and on different types of participatory reform. Comparative papers at any level of governance are most welcome, but we are also very interested in theoretical papers and contributions that concentrate on single cases aimed at contributing to or challenging a comparative agenda.
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Beyond 'Empowerment Versus Co-option': The Competing Logics for Citizen Participation in Policy Decisions | View Paper Details |
From Participatory Policy Proposals to Local Policies: Explaining Diverse Trajectories | View Paper Details |
A Deliberative Methodological Matrix for Systematically Comparing Democratic Innovations | View Paper Details |
Designing Impact: How Democratic Innovations May (Or May Not) Achieve Effective Governance | View Paper Details |
Adoption of Democratic Innovations in Response to EU Meta-Governance: Comparing the UK, Denmark and the Czech Republic | View Paper Details |
Democratic Innovations in Illiberal Democracies: Institutionalisation of Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment in China | View Paper Details |
Why Public Sector Agencies (Sometimes) Support Participatory Democracy Programs | View Paper Details |
The Potential of Participedia as a Tool for Comparative Analysis of Democratic Innovations | View Paper Details |
Institutionalising Deliberative Democracy: The Case of Regional Laws | View Paper Details |
Co-Governance and Contestation: Conflict as a Driver of Participatory Reform in Large Infrastructure Projects | View Paper Details |
Integrating Participatory Institutions into the Traditional Representative and Bureaucratic Model of Public Governance | View Paper Details |
What Drives the Polarization and Moderation of Opinions? Evidence from a Finnish Citizen Experiment on Immigration | View Paper Details |
The Change of Public Participation in Swiss School Governance: More or Less Democratic Legitimisation? | View Paper Details |
Comparing the Role of Autonomous Organisations Dedicated to Public Participation in the Diffusion of Participatory Process | View Paper Details |
Do-ocracy and the Reinvention of Government | View Paper Details |
Rise and Decline of Participatory Instruments at the Local Level: From Normative Assumptions to Policy Outcomes | View Paper Details |
Participation Effectiveness for Policy Acceptance and Social Learning in Natural Resource Management Across Political Regimes | View Paper Details |
Enhancing Deliberative Participation | View Paper Details |
Challenges of Statistical Inference in Explaining the Use of Democratic Innovations: An inquiry Into Finnish Local Direct Democracy | View Paper Details |
Participatory Innovation – What Do We Talk About? | View Paper Details |
Relational Dynamics in Real World Participatory Practices: Exploring the 'Soft Side' Story | View Paper Details |
Success May Not Always Look the Same: A theoretically Driven Discussion of How to Systematically and Meaningfully Compare New Tools of Democratic Participation Across Contexts | View Paper Details |