The politics of hybrid democratic innovations: When a citizens’ assembly follows a referendum

Our political systems are experiencing increasing levels of contestation, particularly on issues such as climate change. Democratic innovations that enhance citizen engagement offer a potential solution to address this contestation. This paper explores a relatively understudied form of hybrid democratic innovation: the combination of a referendum followed by a citizens' assembly. It examines how political actors use this combination to manage contestation through a comparative case study of two municipal-level cases in the Netherlands, both focusing on the contentious issue of waste policy. In both cases, citizens reject the municipality's new waste policy via a corrective referendum, prompting municipal councils to convene citizens' assemblies to formulate a new policy direction. Although the data collection and cases are ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that the level of contestation influences how this combination is politically utilized to address contestation. This research makes two significant contributions to our understanding of hybrid democratic innovations. First, it enhances our understanding of the combination of a referendum followed by a citizens' assembly as both a manifestation of contestation and a method of managing contestation. Second, it sheds light on the political uses of this combination, revealing how political actors may leverage these instruments for political advantage while still accommodating a process that challenges the decision-making authority of representative institutions such as municipal councils.