Bridging the Gap between Comparative Politics and Participatory Democracy Studies: A Comparison of Subnational Decentralization Policies and Participatory designs in France, Canada and Brazil

Through the comparison of three participatory bodies in France (Marseille), Canada (Montreal), and Leon (Mexico), we reverse the traditional question about the democratic innovation. Rather than thinking about how the democratic innovation can transform the representative democracy, we investigate how the new participatory bodies are shaped by the previous balance of power and specific agencies within the representative democracy. Our reflection emphasizes the context of decentralization, which has presided over the emergence of these new participatory bodies, and on their elements of design. While the majority of studies about decentralization and innovative democracy concentrates on the local or meso level, our study focuses on the multi-level governance dimension and the subnational politics. Consequently, our argument combines a weberian and a tocquevilian perspective. This double perspective points not only to the weight of civil society on the emergence of these participatory designs but also how the characteristics of civil society are related to multi-level governance. By selecting three cities both in North and in South countries, our survey aims to collect contributions from the development literature as well as from public decision-making and governance. Yet, in contrast to the majority of the studies in the field, the 3 cases are unsuccessful experiences. Instead of looking for ‘good practices’ and the meaningful elements regarding democratic innovation, we support a point of view which embeds the new participatory bodies in a historical perspective. Our method relies on participant observation to grasp the functioning of these bodies, as well as the analysis of legislative frameworks and different interviews with some key actors in the different reforms.