Democratic Innovations: Looking Back, Taking Stock, Thinking Ahead

As democratic innovations become an established field of academic inquiry and political practice, this Section will consist of Panels that critically reflect on the following questions: - Looking back: How did democratic innovations become part of the ‘mainstream’ in democratic theory and practice? What evidence is available for scholars to make claims about the power and limits of democratic innovations in reforming politics? - Taking stock: What are the current trends in democratic innovations? How are they changing practices of democratic governance? - Thinking ahead: What shape should democratic innovations take, and what future challenges should they address? Panel and Paper proposals are encouraged to address these themes: Responding to Policy Challenges. What policy problems have democratic innovations proved most successful in addressing? How can they help societies respond democratically to the challenges of the future—from technological transformation to climate change? Democratic Innovations in the Democratic System. How can democratic innovations respond to the current challenges facing democratic systems, and ward off growing authoritarianism and the pathologies of populism? Can they facilitate critical citizenship? And what are the new horizons for democratisation, from the workplace to transnational governance? Transformations of democratic innovations. How are current democratic innovations learning from its previous forms? How can they be better embedded in political institutions and civil society? How and should they be scaled up? How are they being transformed by digital technologies? What are the implications of increasingly complex democratic innovations that combine multiple arenas of participation, including online and offline arenas?