On the Evaluation of Democratic Innovations A Preliminary Framework

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On the Evaluation of Democratic Innovations A
Preliminary Framework

• Prof. Dr. Brigitte Geissel
• Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
• International Conference
• MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK IN THE DIGITAL AGE
• 5-6 November 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania

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Current Malaises of Representative Democracies

• World-wide triumph of democracy, but several
  malaises, e.g. - political support eroding-
  mistrust in political elites- decline of voter
  turnout
• Generallydisappointment and disenchantment with
  representative democracy
• How to mend these malaises?

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How to mend these malaises?

• The cure for democracies ills is more
  democracy (Dalton 2003)
• The effectiveness of policies depends on
  ensuring wide participation (EU White Paper,
  2001)
• ?Participatory Innovations

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What Are Participatory Innovations?

• Direct Democracy, popular vote
• Cooperation between interest groups and state
  actors, e.g., Governance with Civil Society
• Deliberation, e.g. Consensus Conference
• ? New information technologies important for all
  innovations, e.g. e-voting, online deliberation

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• High expectations on participatory innovations
  and on new information technologies But
  how does the reality look like?How to evaluate?

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How to evaluate?

• Case study approach prevails ? detailed
  description of individual case, but ? scientific
  patchwork, leaving (too) many questions
• Why a criteria-based framework? - comparison of
  several innovations and of many cases-
  comprehensive insights into benefits and
  disadvantages of different innovations-
  clarification, which innovation is useful,
  useless, or even harmful addressing which
  democratic malaise

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Criteria For The Evaluation

• Participation
• Legitimacy/political support
• Deliberation
• Effective problem-solving
• Enlightenment of citizens

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Suggestion for a framework to evaluate PIs
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Making Democracy Work In The Digital Age

• Can new technologies mend current malaises of
  representative democracies?
• Can technologies improve- inclusive, equal
  meaningful participation?- legitimacy/political
  support?- quality of deliberation?- effective
  problem-solving? - enlightened citizens?
• Where do they have no effect?
• Which malaises do they worsen?

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• At the end of this International Conference
• MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK IN THE DIGITAL AGE
• we might be able to answer the questions.

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• Thank you very much for your attention.

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Democratic Innovations Working Definition

• New procedures consciously and purposefully
  introduced with the aim of mending current
  democratic malaises, irrespective of whether the
  innovation in question has already been tried out
  in another state

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Dynamic Development of Democratic Innovations

• Increasing options for popular voting, also
  e-voting
• More and more experiments with deliberative and
  discursive procedures, also online deliberation
• Cooperation between civil society groups and
  state actors increasing, also via new information
  technologies
• ? sufficient material und data for empirical
  evaluation

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Some Hypotheses
Aggregation
Deliberation
Meaningful participation
Deliberative QualityEnlightened citizens
democratic skills
Enlightened citizens knowledge
Effectiveness
Perceived legitimacy
Inclusive participation
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Starting Points For the Framework

• Principles of Democracy described by theories on
  democracy, e.g. Jefferson, Lincoln, Schumpeter,
  Scharpf, Barber, Dryzek,
• Empirical studies on the quality of
  democracy,e.g. Diamond/Morlino, Democratic Audit
• Case Studies on democratic Innovations
• Existing frameworks analyzing democratic
  innovations, Papadopoulos/Warin 2007, Fung 2008,
  Smith 2009

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Participatory Innovations Explanation
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Starting Point

• Current malaises expected to be improved via
  participatory innovationsInclusive, equal,
  meaningful participation legitimacy/political
  supportEffective problem solving Efficiency
  Quality of deliberation Enlightened citizenry
  Vertical accountability/vertical control/popular
  control Responsiveness Transparency
• Probably not improved via participatory
  innovationsrule of law, elite competition,
  horizontal accountability, horizontal separation
  of power, civil and political freedom/rights,
  autonomy of government