Evaluating Democratic Innovations : Curing the Democratic Malaise?

In the face of increasing political disenchantment, many Western governments have experimented, with innovations which aim to enhance the working and quality of democracy as well as increasing citizens’ political awareness and understanding of political matters.

This text is the most comprehensive account of these various democratic innovations. Written by an outstanding team of international experts it examines the theories behind these democratic innovations, how they have worked in practice and evaluates their success or failure. It explains experiments with new forms of democratic engagement such as:

• Direct Democracy
• Deliberative Democracy
• Co-Governance
• E-Democracy

Drawing on a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and with a broad range of case studies, this is essential reading for all students of democratic theory and all those with an interest in how we might revitalise democracy and increase citizen involvement in the political process.

Brigitte Geissel is Professor of Political Sciences and Political Sociology at Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and is currently a fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.

Kenneth Newton is Emeritus Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Southampton, UK.