Democratic innovations are assumed to produce better citizens, more informed about public choices and interested in civic life. While research has spread on the educational consequences of participation, few studies have compared systematically several democratic innovations to assess their learning potential. This is the goal of this paper, comparing the effects on individuals of participation in mini-publics and participatory budgeting institutions, in France and Spain. The results indicate that mini-publics have stronger cognitive effects, but those are short-lived. Participatory budgets have in constrast stronger practical, behaviorial and civic effects. In both cases, learning seems to be largely influenced by individuals level of satisfaction with the experience
