Democratic Innovations: Responding to Great Challenges

Although democratic innovations provide good news stories for advocates of political reform, political systems are still straining to provide basic democratic goods. Are democratic innovations a solution or a distraction from democracies’ greatest ills? How can innovation in democratic systems provide for empowered participation that develops personal preferences into enriched collective opinions and clever collective decisions? What kinds of democratic innovations are required to enhance the democratic capacities of political systems? The 2018 ECPR Conference Democratic Innovations Section Proposal addresses these questions by bringing together advocates and sceptics of democratic innovations. This section is structured around three themes: I. Innovating Inclusions, II. Enriching Public-Opinion through Innovation, and III. Innovating Democratic Decision-Making. We invite paper and panel submissions that speak to any of the themes and questions listed below. I. INNOVATING INCLUSIONS Democracy begins with inclusion. How can democratic innovations address challenges of inclusion in increasingly pluralised and globally interconnected societies? II. ENRICHING PUBLIC-OPINION THROUGH INNOVATION Collective rule requires that people combine their personal preferences into collective agendas. How can democratic innovations harness the potential of new technologies, social movements, and institutional design for sharing useful information and making connections? III. INNOVATING DEMOCRATIC DECISION-MAKING Growing global interdependencies, polarisation, and disaffected citizens contribute to political gridlock and fuel anti-democratic sentiments. How can democratic innovations support the decision- making capacities of democratic systems? About the Section Chairs Dr. Edana Beauvais is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, McGill University. Her research considers how democratic innovations can be designed to neutralize inequalities and promote more inclusive deliberation and policy-making. She is a collaborator on the Participedia Project and a member of Equal Voice Canada. Her recent publications appear in the European Journal of Political Research, the Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy, and PS: Political Science and Politics. Dr. Matt Ryan is Lecturer in Governance and Public Policy at the University of Southampton. His research focuses on democratic innovation and participation in politics, the policymaking process, and social science research methods. He chairs the re- search committee of the Participedia Project, a global network of scholars and practitioners dedicated to understanding participatory democratic innovations. His most recent publications appear in the European Journal of Political Research, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and Local Government Studies.