Democratic Innovations

The focus for the Democratic innovations Section is on complementing the normative and theoretical stage in democratic innovations research with an empirical-oriented stage in which democratic innovations – of both direct democratic and deliberative character – are integrated into democratic societies. Although direct democratic tools have been implemented to a larger extent than deliberative innovations, our knowledge concerning the underlying mechanisms and general functioning of the two is still limited. Moreover, so far extensive attention has been dedicated to established democracies, while far less emphasis as laid on emerging or new democracies. The Panels and Papers are expected to provide answers to the following questions: In what ways are democratic innovations used in different contexts? How are these serving to increase citizen participation and deliberation? What are the causal mechanisms leading to increased involvement and enlightened citizens and how could democratic innovations be enhanced to strengthen these two aspects? The section is structured along three themes, all of which can be approach either theoretically, methodologically or empirically: 1. Practice and challenges of direct democracy 2. Integrating deliberative mini-publics in democracies 3. Democratic innovation in various contexts (Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, United States) Preliminary Panels Panel 1: Experimental research in democratic innovations Chair: Kim Strandberg (Åbo Akademi University, Finland), Co-chair: Kimmo Grönlund (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) By bringing together methodological discussions and experimental evidence from various contexts and concerning varying democratic innovations, this Panel will bring new methodological solutions and knowledge on the mechanisms and effects of different democratic innovations Panel 2: Normative Reflections on Democratic Innovations Panel Chair: Ian O’Flynn, Newcastle University, UK Panel Co-chair: Maija Setälä, University of Turku, Finland This Panel will offer a normative perspective on the ways in which democratic innovations increase participation and deliberation. Especially, it will assess the extent to which innovations embody – or fail to embody – principles of deliberative and participatory democracy. As part of that, the Panel will reflect critically on those principles and suggest new avenues of empirical research Panel 3: Political Parties and Direct Democracy in Eastern Europe Panel chair: Sergiu Gherghina, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany Co-chair: Peter Spac, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic This Panel discusses the relationship between political parties – as key institutions in representative democracies – and the use of direct democracy in Eastern Europe. It seeks to assess the forms in which political parties get involved in the adoption and use of direct democracy tools both at national and local level. Panel 4: Citizens’ initiatives in Europe: Improving democracy? Panel Chair: Henrik Serup Christensen (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) Co-chair: Maija Karjalainen (University of Turku, Finland) Focuses on how citizens’ initiatives affect democracy. What factors affect the success of individual citizens’ initiatives? Do citizens’ initiative engage otherwise passive citizens? How do citizens’ initiatives interact with traditional decision making among political elites? How do citizens and political elites evaluate citizens’ initiatives? Do initiative campaigns shape deliberation in the public sphere? Panel 5: Preferences for democratic processes Panel chair: Åsa von Schoultz, Mid Sweden University, Sweden Panel co-chair: Sofie Marien, KU Leuven, Belgium People have different conceptions of how much citizen involvement is warranted in the ideal democratic process. Many questions do however remain to be explored relating to the individual underpinnings, contextual and issue specific variations, and to the political consequences of process preferences. This panel seeks to deepen the understanding of people’s democracy preferences from different perspectives. Panel 6: The 'macro' impacts of deliberative democratic innovations Panel chair: Pamela Hess, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany Panel co-chair: Nivek Thompson, University of Technology Sydney, Australia It is often assumed that deliberative processes have an impact on representative democracy or the broader community. But what is still missing is a particular operationalization of these impacts: What does impact on representative democracy mean? What does impact on the broader community mean? This Panel will look at what we know about the macro impacts of deliberative processes and how we might design empirical studies to further our understanding. Panel 7: Beyond the deliberative hegemony: whatever happened to participatory democracy? Panel Chair: Graham Smith, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, UK In what ways do other theoretical perspectives provide important insights into democratic institutions and systems that are overlooked or underplayed by deliberative democrats? Can these other perspectives be adequately incorporated within deliberative democratic theory? This Panel seeks to offer critical engagement with deliberative democracy, exploring the implications of alternative ways of theorizing and analyzing modes of participatory governance. Panel 8: Democratic innovations in Latin America Panel chair: Thamy Pogrebinschi, WZB Berlin, Germany What is the development of democratic innovations in Latin America and what challenges do they face? This Panel seeks to offer an insight into the most recent forms of deliberative and direct democracy in several Latin American countries, with a focus on the actors, processes, and consequences. Biographies of Section Chairs: Kim Strandberg is associate professor and special researcher at the Social Science Research Institute at the Åbo Akademi University (Finland). His research focuses on on-line political participation and participatory innovations. His main focus has been on how to increase civic participation and to deepen citizens’ democratic involvement through deliberative innovations in the on-line context. Strandberg has, among others, published in Cambridge University Press, ECPR Press, Routledge, Wiley-Blackwell, The European Political Science Review, Party Politics, New Media & Society, and the Journal of Information Technology & Politics. Sergiu Gherghina is Lecturer at the Research Unit Democratic Innovations, Department of Political Science, Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany). His research interests lie in party politics, legislative and voting behaviour, democratization, and the use of direct democracy. His book on party organization and electoral volatility in Eastern Europe has been recently published by Routledge (2014). He authored and co-authored works in journals such as American Journal of Political Science, Comparative European Politics, Democratization, Electoral Studies, European Political Science Review, European Union Politics, International Political Science Review, Journal of Legislative Studies, Parliamentary Affairs or Party Politics.