Novel perspectives on theories of participatory governance

Abstract

In recent years, deliberative democracy has gone from a relatively marginal segment of democratic theory, to a global phenomenon among NGOs, practitioners and international organizations and a surge in empirical research. This is particularly true of the European space, where Deliberative Mini-Publics, such as Citizens' Assemblies and Citizen Juries, have been increasingly implemented at the local, regional, national, and -most recently- even supranational level. These institutions bring 'everyday citizens' together to debate and find answers to complex policy issues. The growing body of cases, however, has also made evident numerous issues among democracy researchers and theorists well beyond the disciplinary boundaries of participatory and deliberative democracy, ranging from affective polarization and political exclusion to procedural standards and institutional design. This panel addresses issues of growing relevance beyond the promised advantages of input, throughput and output legitimacy that permeate designed institutions of deliberation and formalized channels for participation. Novel theoretical perspectives explore the limits of existing consensus on normative democratic theory. From an empirically-informed perspective, this panel explores the inherent tension between (State) institutions and citizen engagement and the limits of 'one-size fits all' solutions against context-specific issues. On a methodological level, the papers raise questions of how to bridge the epistemic divide between empirically-informed theory and 'purely' normative theory. On an epistemic level, they address issues of how knowledge is construed, both within designed institutions, and in the research we produce about them.

Title	Details
Towards democratic diagnosis: Building a framework to identify context-specific problems of democratic systems	View Paper Details
A systemic approach to democracy: conceptualizing democratic systems	View Paper Details
Internal Exclusion and Epistemic Injustice in Deliberative Mini Publics	View Paper Details
Realizing Radical Openness: Conversation starters for innovating democracy "bottom-up"	View Paper Details
Facts and Norms: Radical Realists’ Alternative	View Paper Details