Citizens’ Engagement in Politics Beyond Voting: Challenging or Improving Governance?

The Workshop will bridge different strands of literature that address citizens’ engagement in politics and governance from several angles. This is salient and contemporary since European countries are going in opposite directions: some restrict the possibilities for citizens’ engagement; others expand them. Citizens’ engagement in politics has traditionally discussed the modes of political participation in representative democracy, its determinants, who participates, and its links to civicness (van Deth, Montero and Westholm, 2007; Theocharis and van Deth, 2017; Dalton, 2019). Over the last three decades, several lines of enquiry have emerged in the context of an increasing critique brought to representative democracy, dissatisfaction and disaffection towards political institutions and the limitations of citizens’ engagement (Pateman, 1970; Norris, 2011). While previous research advocates for greater opportunities for citizens’ engagement beyond the modes of participation in representative democracy (Kriesi, 2005; Smith, 2009; Elstub and Escobar, 2019), there is mixed evidence about the consequences of this engagement through direct, deliberative or technocratic models of decision-making. Furthermore, studies speak about migrants’ engagement in the politics of their countries of origin or of residence with impact on governance (Paarlberg, 2017; Finn, 2020). By bridging these bodies of research, this Workshop will advance the state of the art by: 1) identifying ways in which citizens’ engagement in politics beyond voting can produce consequences for governance, 2) enhancing a dialogue between complementary modes of citizens’ engagement and 3) providing a holistic approach to understand the consequences of citizens’ political engagement in democratic and transition countries.

Dalton, R.J. (2019) Citizen Politics. Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. 7th edn. Thousand Oaks: CQ Press. van Deth, J.W., Montero, J.R. and Westholm, A. (eds) (2007) Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies: A Comparative Analysis. New York: Routledge. Elstub, S. and Escobar, O. (eds) (2019) Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Finn, V. (2020) ‘Migrant voting: here, there, in both countries, or nowhere’, Citizenship Studies, 24(6), pp. 730–750. Kriesi, H. (2005) Direct Democratic Choice. The Swiss Experience. Plymouth: Lexington Books. Norris, P. (2011) Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paarlberg, M.A. (2017) ‘Transnational militancy: Diaspora influence over electoral activity in Latin America’, Comparative Politics, 49(4), pp. 541–559. Pateman, C. (1970) Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smith, G. (2009) Democratic innovation: Designing institutions for citizen participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Theocharis, Y. and van Deth, J.W. (2017) Political Participation in a Changing World. Conceptual and Empirical Challenges in the Study of Citizen Engagement. New York: Routledge.

1: What are the consequences of citizens’ engagement on governance at national or subnational level?
2: Why are some modes of engagement banned while others encouraged in democracies or transition countries?
3: Why do people engage in specific modes of political participation beyond voting?
4: How do political institutions and politicians approach citizens’ political engagement?
5: How do people understand the importance of their engagement in politics?

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