Abstract

Democratic innovations are usually described as improvements of democratic procedures in terms of citizens' participation in decision making, although they can be more than that. Given the variety of democratic theories and indicators, innovations can focus on a wide range of aspects like electoral laws, social inclusion, citizenship education, control mechanisms or transparency etc. This article wants to show that democratic theory can enrich the study of democratic innovations. It suggests a theoretical classification of innovations along the categories input, output and political communication and relates them to existing theories. The main argument is that input-innovations can contribute to the quality of a democracy as well as output-innovations and innovations in political communication. According to different democratic theories, the quality of a democracy depends on systemic or structural conditions, the democratic behavior of the citizens and on democratic communication which must not be reduced to strategic persuasion of citizens, but needs to include contestation and deliberation in transparent public spheres and information about input- and output-innovations. Thus, political communication is at the same time an object of innovation and a translator or mediator of innovation. With an overview and a categorization of different types, the article wants to widen the specter of democratic innovations and relate them to democratic theories.