Democratic Innovations: Meeting Great Expectations?

Democratic innovations are at a crossroads. For some, the time has come for these ‘citizen-centric’ initiatives to be scaled up and empowered to influence binding decisions. These innovations have established a track record in deepening democratic engagement, whether it is in the context of planning in local communities or identifying prospects for global climate change policies. For others, however, democratic innovations have stopped being democratic and innovative. Instead of delivering on their promise of generating legitimate outcomes, policymakers and corporate interests have co-opted these democratic forums. The much cited ‘crisis of democracy’ also places democratic innovations on the spot. Why is it that the age of democratic innovations in political theory has also been the age of bigotry, fake news, and populism in political practice? This Section is designed to get to the heart of these issues. It seeks to generate a conversation between advocates, sceptics, and observers of democratic innovations, as well as scholars that envision their future.