HAMBACH DEMOCRACY PAPER 2/23 Progressive Tradition. European Vision. Are democratic innovations better at breaking the link between inequality and democracy? by Carly Walker-Dawson What are democratic innovations and why do we need them? Democratic innovations are ways to engage people in decision-making outside of traditional democratic structures. By traditional demo­cratic structures I mean voting and contacting your elected representatives. In some cases, this might also mean taking part in consul­tations— usually online and usually one­way. When I refer to public engagement in decision-making, it is how people who are not elected representatives can influence decisions in policy, programmes, services or initiatives. What is important here is that decision-mak­ing feeds into something concrete, beyond asking people broadly what they think about a topic, as this type of input is easy to ignore. So why are democratic innovations increasing in popularity and becoming more common in the democratic discourse? People are opting out of the representative demo­cratic system across Europe. Members of the public are disillusioned, disengaged and feel like they don’t have the means to influence decision-making. This reality is reflected in voter turnout, which has been on the decline since the end of the last century across Europe [International IDEA Institute]. And the people whose trust has been broken the most by the establishment are people from low income and disenfranchised groups who face the greatest barriers in accessing the democratic system[IPPR]. We need to reignite people’s fire for democratic engagement and we need alternative means to be able to do this. 1