A meta-analysis of the effects of democratic innovations on citizens

Many established democracies have experienced a decline in political support. Citizens are increasingly distrustful of democratic institutions and disillusioned with the functioning of the democratic process. One answer to this trend has been to implement democratic innovations. Indeed, many democratic innovations are designed to reform or complement current representative democratic decision-making processes and, as a result, strengthen political support. However, while individual studies do exist, a systematic assessment of whether democratic innovations have their desired effects is generally lacking. In this meta-analysis, we will collect and systematically assess existing empirical studies on the effect of democratic innovations on citizens’ political support. To do so, we follow the statistical procedure developed by Geys (2006). The meta-analysis incorporates 44 studies published in scientific journals between 1980 and 2021.