Talk:
\n\u201cWhat democracy for tomorrow? \u2013 Democratic Innovations and Implications for Public Policy\u201d<\/p>\n
by
\nJos\u00e9 Duarte Ribeiro
\nPostdoctoral Research Fellow
\nInstitute of Social Studies
\nUniversity of Lisbon
\njose.ribeiro@ics.ulisboa.pt<\/p>\n
Date and Room Info:
\nMonday, April 21, 2025, 12:30 p.m.
\nA-130<\/p>\n
Abstract:<\/p>\n
The study explores the theoretical foundations, institutional designs, and policy implications of democratic innovations\u2014institutions, processes and\/or practices intended to deepen citizen participation in public decision-making. Anchored in participatory and deliberative democratic theory, and informed by empirical findings from the Horizon Europe project INCITE-DEM, the research critically assesses the evolving role of these innovations amid democratic backsliding and civic disaffection.<\/p>\n
Tracing their historical trajectory through two major periods of development\u2014from postwar participatory demands to contemporary deliberative institutionalization\u2014and illustrating them by key cases such as the Irish Citizens\u2019 Assembly, the Ostbelgien Model (Belgium), and the Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre (Brazil)\u2014the study reflects on three core promises of democratic innovations: to complement, improve, and transform democracy.<\/p>\n
However, the study also foregrounds risks: the scale of governance and implementation, co-optation by technocratic rationalities, and the tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. When democratic innovations fail to produce meaningful inclusion or institutional uptake, they risk deepening the very malaise they were designed to redress.<\/p>\n
Rather than retreating into cynicism or na\u00efve optimism, the study calls for a renewed democratic ethos\u2014one that cultivates the courage and imaginative commitment to deepen citizen participation and collective agency. The future of democracy hinges not only on institutional design, but on reawakening the civic spirit.<\/p>\n
Short Biography<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Duarte Ribeiro is a sociologist and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon. He is currently working on democratic innovations and citizen participation under the Horizon Europe funded research project \u201cInclusive Citizenship in a World in Transformation: Co- Designing for DEmocracy (INCITE-DEM)\u201d. He is also working on a nationally funded research project \u201cDemocratic Innovations in Portugal\u201d at ICS, aiming to collect, code and map participatory and deliberative practices promoted by Portuguese municipalities in the last 50 years. He also develops his research as a member of the COST Action \u201cResearch Network for Interdisciplinary Studies of Transhistorical Deliberative Democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 earned a PhD degree in Sociology from Middle East Technical University, in 2023, with a study on rural social movements and rural politics in the 21st century Turkey. During his doctorate studies he worked as a Lecturer and as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Latin American Studies of Ankara University.<\/p>\n
He has published in refereed international journal and has presented over a dozen papers in international conferences, in English, Portuguese and Spanish, on the fields of rural sociology and rural politics, social movements and citizen participation in democratic policymaking. He also holds the early career seat at the Executive Committee of the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talk: \u201cWhat democracy for tomorrow? \u2013 Democratic Innovations and Implications for Public Policy\u201d by Jos\u00e9 Duarte Ribeiro Postdoctoral Research Fellow Institute of Social Studies University of Lisbon jose.ribeiro@ics.ulisboa.pt Date and Room Info: Monday, April 21, 2025, 12:30 p.m. A-130 Abstract: The study explores the theoretical foundations, institutional designs, and policy [\u2026] <\/p>\n