Democratic Innovations and Electoral Legitimacy

When looking for solutions to the contemporary challenges faced by traditional representative institutions – low trust in politicians, declining turnout to elections, partisan disaffiliation (Hay 2007; Mair 2013) – theorists often turn to democratic innovations that circumvent electoral representation. The two main examples are the empowerment of citizen representatives through mini-publics and referendums. However, the effects of using referendums and sortition on the perception of elected representatives are not clear yet. Although they could increase popular trust in the democratic system taken as a whole, they could nonetheless contribute to the erosion of trust in electoral representatives. Some studies thus show that the use of referendums can reduce turnout to elections and weaken trust in elected representatives, at least for those taking part in these referendums (Bauer & Fatke 2014; Dyck 2009; Peters 2016). And the same could be expected with sortition, given that it completely challenges the traditional grounding of representation. If anyone can be a good representative, why do we need elections, a mechanism that was supposed to bring to power the best among us, those who distinguish themselves from the mass (Manin 1995)? For these reasons, if we believe that electoral representation would still have an important role to play in a properly reformed democracy, we may need to think about: • The possible effect of institutionalizing different democratic innovations on the perceived legitimacy of elected representatives. • Possible ways of improving this perceived legitimacy through other democratic innovations that would generate more trust in elected representatives. The paper thus offers a distinction between democratic innovations that challenge electoral legitimacy and others that potentially strengthen it. Referendums and sortition are linked with the former category; the recall, the right to petition and intra-party democracy with the latter. Depending on its use, the right of initiative can belong to both categories. References Bauer, P. C., & Fatke, M. (2014). Direct democracy and political trust: Enhancing trust, initiating distrust–or both?. Swiss Political Science Review, 20(1), 49-69. Dyck, J. J. (2009). Initiated distrust: Direct democracy and trust in government. American Politics Research, 37(4), 539-568. Hay, C. (2007). Why we hate politics. Polity. Mair, P. (2013). Ruling the void: The hollowing of Western democracy. Verso. Manin, B. (1995). Principes du gouvernement représentatif. Calmann-Lévy, 2012. Peters, Y. (2016). Zero-sum democracy? The effects of direct democracy on representative participation. Political Studies, 64(3), 593-613.