Opium or cure? How deliberative innovations prevent institutional change

Deliberative theorists have long argued that deliberative citizen forums should be used to complement representative decision-making processes. In recent years, these suggestions have increasingly met with approval from political elites. Ever more citizen forums are organised at all levels of government and around the world. I argue, however, that these forums often simply offer an easy way out for governments that want to respond to demands for more inclusive participation but at the same time seek to prevent discussion about major institutional reform. Deliberative democrats should not be complicit in this endeavour, but critically assess existing institutional orders for their effects on participation and inclusive deliberation and initiate discussions about reforms that are not merely additive, but structural.