Towards a Dynamic Democracy: Democratic Innovations after the ‘Systemic Turn’ of Deliberative Democracy

This paper examines a new direction for the theory and practice of democratic innovations following the ‘systemic turn’ of deliberative democracy and proposes a concept of ‘dynamic democracy’. Dynamic democracy builds on the key insights of modern democratic thinkers such as Dewey, Arendt and Habermas, who sought to place political public spheres and active public participation and deliberation at the heart of whole democratic processes. The concept seeks to reimagine the institutional design and practice of representative democracy, based on the ‘constructivist turn’ in political representation. Simultaneously, it pursues to combine representative institutions with participatory, deliberative and direct democratic mechanisms in alternative ways. In order to explore how a dynamic democracy can be operated in real contexts of contemporary democracies, the paper also provides a systemic review of three notable democratic innovations: the Irish Citizens' Assembly, Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review, and Finnish Citizens' Initiative.