Borge, R. (2026). “Digital hybrid democratic innovations: participation, debate and voting in Decidim Barcelona and Decide Madrid”. In C. Wagenaar, T. Sipma & F. Hendriks (eds) Connecting Deliberation and Voting in Democratic Innovations. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035353323.00015
This discerning book examines the promise and practice of hybrid democratic innovations that combine voting and deliberation within a single participatory design, while remaining anchored in representative democracy. While traditional scholarship has predominantly focused on either vote-centric or talk-centric forms of participation, this book shifts attention to hybrid models that harness the complementary strengths of both.
Chapter 6, authored by Rosa Borge analyses Decidim Barcelona and Decide Madrid as examples of hybrid democratic innovations, owing to their global reach, significant participatory processes hosted, number of participants, focus on direct citizen participation, and the hybridisation of multiple online and offline debate and voting spaces, functioning simultaneously or sequentially. This chapter examines their evolution over the past decade, highlighting participation levels, challenges and obstacles. The comparison reveals different approaches to participation and distinct political and legal constraints.
The chapter and the whole edited volume can be read Open Access:
https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781035353323/9781035353323.xml