Democratic innovations are complex affairs that evolve over time. A general typology currently does not exist. In this essay, we propose a new approach to classify democratic innovations inspired by the periodic table of elements. The first step of this approach is to adopt a systemic view of democratic innovations. By interpreting democratic innovations as systems it becomes possible to bypass the confusing and ever-expanding set of ‘tags’ that are currently used to market these innovations and focus, instead, on the elements composing each system. The second step of this approach is to map the variety of elements of democratic innovations that are currently known. The third step is to identify recurring system configurations, i.e the integration mechanisms that combine the elements of a system, and from these trends provisional varieties of democratic innovations. Using examples drawn from Participedia, we present a preliminary table of the elements composing democratic innovations.
