Recent research about democratic innovations has neglected the analysis of one of the most widespread participatory institutions: associationally based institutions organized through territories or policy sectors (Advisory councils, AC). In contrast with many other democratic innovations, these institutions are commonly embedded in the practice of representative democracies, while often including a participatory and/or associational logic in its development. Previous research shows contrasting views about them: while Fung (2004) claimed the crucial role that the “accountable autonomy” of these institutions could have, most research points to their very limited policy influence (Cooper and Muso, 1999; Mathews, 2001, Navarro, 2004; Bherer et al, 2016).
Fobbé and her colleagues (2013) have shown that satisfaction with the advisory process in these ACs is high, even if influence of this advice is perceived as low. This means that even if policy influence may be an important motivation to participate (Verba et al, 1995), other reasons need to exist to explain the activity of a quite substantial number of participants, as recent research in the field of democratic innovations has highlighted (Jacquet, 2017)
Our research aims to map these associational institutions in Spain, using a multilevel perspective, covering from the national level to the local (cities of more than 200.000 inhabitants). The paper will present a general mapping of the presence of these institutions, but will mostly focus on trying to understand why participants choose to continue participating in them. The analysis will be based on an online survey answered by participants in about 50 ACs. Three main explanations will be mostly considered: participants are there to gain symbolic recognition for their organizations, to get access to local information and political elites or to have influence in policy-making.
