Research Unit Democratic Innovations

Hot off the press:

The Sciences of the Democracies

Jean-Paul Gagnon, Benjamin Abrams et al., UCL Press

uclpress.co.uk/book/the-sci....

DOI: doi.org/10.14324/111...

INSPIRE panel at #IPSA2025 — thanks to our presenters and discussant ‪@kathaesa.bsky.social‬, lively exchange on Intersectionality & Participatory Deliberative Democracy with plenty of fresh angles. Thanks to everyone who contributed! We’ll keep you posted!

#InspireDemocracy #PDD #Inclusion

@ipsa.org

Our @szilvia-nagy.bsky.social, @felixhoffmann.bsky.social & Alan Marx will be at IPSA 2025 in Seoul! Szilvi & Felix present work on intersectionality & democratic innovations from @horizon-inspire.bsky.social. Alan shares research on mini-publics & policy entrepreneurs. Feel free to get in touch!

Overall: mini-publics and direct democratic instruments are a promising combination, but one that still needs more empirical evidence and related concept formation. Much remains to be done—and we’re happy to help shape this field of research.

German practice: mini-publics usually focus on policy formulation, but there are also cases showing new functions such as channelling citizens’ initiatives and petitions.

Early stage of research: empirical insights remain limited beyond well-known cases like Ireland, British Columbia, Ontario, and Oregon.

Conceptual: mini-publics can perform specific functions in policy processes alongside direct democratic instruments: agenda-setting/policy-formulation; giving voters balanced information; and providing orientation and guiding implementation.

Freiheit. Gleichheit. Vertrauen., Thomas Hartmann-Cwiertnia / Jochen Dahm / Frank Decker - Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., Bonn Warum beginnt Freiheit mit der Demokratie? Wo endet sie? Warum ist das Gleichheitsversprechen für die Demokratie besonders wichtig? Wieso lebt unsere Demokratie von Vertrauen und wie können wir es stä...

#HotOffThePress:
New article by @felixhoffmann.bsky.social and Brigitte Geissel on combining mini-publics and direct democratic instruments (in German).
Key take aways in comments.
Book: dietz-verlag.de/isbn/9783801...

The INSPIRE team at Birmingham University is using Legislative Theatre to empower young people and influence policy change.
Register here for the upcoming webinar to get deep insights! bit.ly/3G4U9aY

#InspireDemocracy #PDD #Inclusion

Die Forschungsstelle Demokratische Innovationen hat den ersten Bürger*innenrat Aachen, der erste permanente #Bürgerrat in Deutschland, wissenschaftlich begleitet. Den Abschlussbericht zur Evaluation könnt ihr jetzt auf unserer Homepage herunterladen:
tinygu.de/BuergerInnen...

Job Opportunity at the University of Southampton: Research Fellow, Integrating Citizen Deliberation for Impact (i4i) We are delighted to welcome applications for the position of Research Fellow within the Integrating Citizen Deliberation for Impact (i4i) project, an international collaboration to examine the variety...

If all you want for Christmas is a new job, then I have just the thing.

Come work with me on the Integrating Citizen Deliberation for Impact project. Join a great dept at Southampton, and an international team researching the European wave of climate assemblies.

jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Hello Bluesky-Community! Thanks to @rikkidean.bsky.social for creating this useful starter pack of Democratic Innovations scholars.