Democratic deficit refers to the discrepancy between the decision outcomes of the representative institutions and the opinions of the electorate. We shall first deal with the simplest settings that involve only two decision alternatives and two levels of decision making. The deficit then boils down to referendum paradox. With three or more alternatives the will of the people can become inherently ambiguous, i.e. procedure-dependent. It turns out that a major culprit is the majority principle.
We shall discuss some major electoral innovations and argue that the problems related to the agenda control make these of rather limited importance in democratic governance. At the same time it is likely that the role of direct participation will increase in the future largely as a result of the electoral innovations.
