Multi-Level Governance of Democratic Innovations: Who, How and Where?

Democratic innovations are deemed to improve democratic governance in response to current predicaments. While many scholars agree on the importance of including those who are disengaged from mainstream policy and decision-making at all levels of governance, we know little about who has promoted and engaged, how has done so and where participatory and deliberative practices have been developed thus far. In other words, we miss robust evidence on the multi-level governance of democratic innovations. Acknowledging this gap, the authors critically approach this issue based on the analysis of 1,120 practices developed in Europe from the 1970s to today. Data was collected in 2023 and 2024 under the EU-funded project INCITE-DEM and main insights are retrieved from there. Whereas we find that most practices are implemented at the local level with local constituencies, some practices offer a more complex set of intertwined actors, instruments and scales. The paper argues that this multiplicity of factors and actors stands at the heart of multi-level governance of democratic innovations, which increasingly show permeability across levels.