ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a comparative assessment of the democratic innovations, judging the extent to which the different designs have provided effective institutional contexts in which citizens have the opportunity to increase and deepen their participation in the European political process. It sketches out aspects of the design choices made by organizers of the experiments. Having laid out some of the basic design features of the different experiments, reflects on their democratic qualities, with particular focus on the extent to which they realize the democratic goods of inclusiveness, considered judgment, publicity and popular control. Futurum and EuroPolis are the only two examples in the sample of designs that aim for multi- or trans-lingual engagement. The institutionalization of a very different democratic innovation, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), is likely to displace any lingering interest in deliberative design. The chapter also shows some reflections on the EU's direction of travel in relation to citizen engagement.
