Reimagining democracy? Alternative forms of multi-level participation in Western liberal democracies

Abstract

Western liberal democracies have branded themselves with being stable and secure democratic systems but are now confronted with a growing number of anti-democratic movements and dissatisfied citizens. This thesis addresses the persistent challenge of this democratic decline by exploring new ideas of democratic participation and their potential. It aims to study how multi-level forms of democratic participation could open new possibilities for civic engagement and to explore what potential and limitations might emerge in their practical implementation. It employs a qualitative, document-based approach and draws on findings from various disciplines, in particular political science, sociology and law. Additionally, a number of cases of current implementations of participatory budgets and citizens’ assemblies at the local and national level serve as illustrative examples. This makes it possible to observe a variety of different potentials for fostering meaningful civic engagement, which, in turn, point towards the possibility for a democratic system acting on multiple participatory layers through a range of democratic instruments. However, it also revealed certain restrictions to the respective democratic prospects by exclusionary structures that are still at play in current democratic systems and whose influence seems to reach the very mechanisms that were created to overcome them. This thesis therefore contributes to the existing discussion around new ideas for structuring inclusive and meaningful democratic participation, highlighting what should be taken into account and which issues need to be tackled.