Democratic innovations in Central and Eastern Europe: expanding the research agenda

ABSTRACT

Democratic innovations have recently gained momentum throughout the world. An increasing number of such practices takes place and coincides with a visible grow in the number of analyses focusing on the forms, functioning and effects of democratic innovations. In spite of these developments, a great deal of research on democratic innovations have largely neglected Central and Eastern Europe. This special issue of Contemporary Politics adds to the existing literature on democratic innovations by focusing on such attempts to deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process in Central and Eastern Europe. Its attempt to expand the research agenda relies on new empirical evidence relative to three major forms of democratic innovations (direct democracy, deliberative democracy and citizens’ involvement with the aid of ICTs).

KEYWORDS:

• Democratic innovations
• citizens
• Central and Eastern Europe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sergiu Gherghina is a Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics, University of Glasgow. His research interests lie in party politics, legislative and voting behavior, democratization, and the use of direct democracy.

Joakim Ekman is a Professor of Political Science, with a special focus on the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. His research interests comprise democratisation, public opinion and political participation.

Olena Podolian is a Ph.D. candidate at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden. She holds M.A. in Political Science from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and M.Sc. in Russian, Central and East European Studies from the University of Glasgow, UK.

ORCID

Sergiu Gherghina http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6627-5598