Inside the innovation: participants’ perceptions of the Consultative Committee of Inquiry to Enhance the Quality of Democracy in Austria, 2014–15

ABSTRACT This article is a comprehensive analysis of the democratic benefit of a democratic innovation introduced to the Austrian Parliament in the year 2014–15: the Consultative Committee of Inquiry to Enhance the Quality of Democracy in Austria. As a novelty, eight citizens, selected by lot, were included to participate in this committee. This article looks at the perceptions of these citizens (gathered via interviews), committee protocols and media coverage. The committee deepened the lack of trust in politics, and it fell prey to party politics. Pseudo-participation to window-dress problems is likely to be detected by participants and the media, especially when they occur in established forms of deliberation. This article shows that, instead of enhancing democracy, democratic innovations can backfire.