In recent years democracy’s pre-eminence has been challenged both normatively and regarding its problem solving capacity. Other, not necessarily democratic regimes, seem to be – according to many analysts – in a better position to cope with future challenges.

The financial crisis which started in 2008 also revealed the inherent strains between capitalism and democracy. The apparent inability of certain democratic regimes to protect wider sections of their population from unemployment and social distress provoked reactions of new kinds of popular movements like Occupy or Indignados. There were also experimentations to combine the new participatory procedures with more traditional processes in order to cope with the crisis as illustrated in the case of the Icelandic constitution making. At the same time it cannot be ignored that the – poor – performance of some democratic systems led to a wide-spread raise of populist parties throughout Europe, which call into question conventional politics. So far democracy’s capability to cope with new challenges which go along with the intensifying processes of globalization cannot be definitely assessed.

Notwithstanding their well-known deficiencies the democratic processes also have great potential to cope with the above mentioned political challenges. A well-designed democracy has the advantage of not being exclusively dependent on output legitimation. It’s core meaning – self-rule of the people – refers particularly to the participatory dimension of politics. Popular participation helps controlling elites and thereby brings policies closer to the preferences of the citizens and furthermore lessens their alienation from politics. In addition, participatory democracy also opens up the political arena to new, innovative ideas from outside the established political channels, thus enhancing the opportunities of political innovation. These instruments induce shifts in preferences of the political actors and thereby also contribute to strengthening the deliberative aspect of democracy. However, the impact of participatory instruments depends on their actual institutional design and their interaction with the political system. Therefore, they have to be evaluated within their actual institutional context.

Starting with the input side, this conference will present new participatory instruments, which make use of personal resources of the citizens and their collective intelligence to foster political innovation. On the output side case studies of policy innovations – fostered by popular participation – and instruments which help to monitor and evaluate the policies, will be examined. These two areas are connected through the procedural dimension. Therefore the third focal point will deal with new procedural tools and mechanisms, which make the political process more transparent and/or render political participation easier for the general public. The aim of this conference is to set up an inventory of new participatory instruments and mechanisms and asses their potential for democratic innovation and, ultimately, their, contribution to the quality of democracy.