A N A LY S I S DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS AGENCY FOR CHANGE Alternative Democratic Practices in Southeast Europe The crisis of representative ­democracy in Southeast ­Europe has renewed aware­ness for the necessity of en­couraging active citizenship. Established political actors should take democratic inno­vations seriously as civic mobili­zations could help democratize Western Balkan societies, with North Macedonia’s Colourful Revolution of 2016 being the outstanding example. Vedran Džihi ć , Gazela Pudar Draško, Felix Henkel, Irena Fiket, Ivan Stefanovski, Rastislav Dini ć December 2019 Local initiatives and move­ments built around defend­ing ›public things‹ are a rediscovery of the values of the past. This should be seen as an opportu­nity to widen the space of po­litical conversation to include topics and memories that were, until recently, suppressed or safely excluded.