This chapter examines practical forms of citizen engagement occurring in collective problem-solving efforts such as civic enterprises, grassroots initiatives, and self-help groups. Drawing empirical evidence from diverse policy fields, it articulates the distinct experimental and disruptive policy work that citizens enact in these citizens’ governance spaces and challenges dominant interpretations that view them as either a testament to the capacity of citizens to effectively solve complex public problems or a symptom of advanced neoliberalism where states off-load complex problems onto citizens. The chapter moves beyond this dualism to consider the motivations, challenges, available resources, and distinct democratic work enacted by citizens in these spaces of bottom-up governance. It also discusses issues of growth and sustainability over time as well as the implications posed for conventional state and civil society institutions. Citizens’ governance spaces offer important lessons – in terms of both potential benefits and risks – for the project of deepening the quality and reach of citizen participation in modern democratic systems.

This chapter asks how political systems with deep-rooted democratic pathologies can be rebooted in a more deliberative direction, taking stock of the prospects for democratic repair and renewal in light of our analysis in the preceding chapters. It begins with possible reform of the representative institutions of liberal democratic states, in light of the fact that states with consensus institutions have higher quality public deliberation and stronger defenses against transgressions than do adversarial systems. Next the chapter examines how institutional democratic innovations such as mini-publics can contribute to democratic renewal, before exploring possibilities for more deliberative politicians and parties. Finally we take a citizen-centric view and discuss how a discursive infrastructure combining old and new media with personal networks and political activism can support democratic viability and vitality. A deliberative systems perspective means that no single institution or specific factor will drive democratic renewal, which rather depends on the interplay of the various factors we identify. Since this is not easy to imagine in the abstract, we apply this framework to an unhealthy system – the United States – and healthier ones – Germany and Switzerland. We finish with some take-home lessons for diabolical times.

Abstract: Moral growth is an evolutionary process, for both the individual and the society. Democracy requires a certain kind of respect that is different from the expression of respect called for in other settings. Here, an object of respect is the capacity of the individual and the society to shape their own development and to determine their own idea of a good life. This calls for an education that aims to promote self-consciousness about existing and emerging possibilities and that enables rising citizens, both as individuals and as part of collective enterprises, to recognize their capacity for growth.