Linking Process with Outcome in Democratic Innovation: The Role of Street-Level in Participatory Governance

This paper examines governance issues that surround policy implementation in democratic innovation from a street-level perspective. In recent years, scholars across various disciplines within the social sciences raised concerns over multifaceted social and institutional challenges for outcome-oriented democratic innovation. Yet, less has been said about the practical capacities and barriers that inhere within the context-bound policy space of street-level implementation for the effective translation of a participatory governance process into a substantive outcome. In these reflections, the paper explores the role of discretional power, analytical competence and institutional capacities as preconditions that exist among the policy actors who are tasked with the implementation of participatory outputs that emerge from democratic innovation. It argues that it is crucial to acknowledge these actors as active co-producers of democratic innovation who (often must) reinterpret, alter and eventually decide substantial contents of participatory outputs. The case of participatory budgeting for climate mitigation measures (Wiener Klimateam) from Vienna (Austria), adds an empirical dimension to this theoretical framework. Building on the results from implementation monitoring and process evaluation, it highlights the tensions and negotiations between the implementing agencies across multiple jurisdictions with varying skills and resources, which influenced the actual outcome of Vienna’s democratic innovation. It concludes with the potential contribution and benefits of the street-level perspective to comparative research on democratic innovation as well as a future research agenda.