Social movements, active citizenship and democratic innovation: an overview

Abstract

This working paper engages in examining the connection between social movements, active citizenship and democratic innovation. Primarily, the paper defines the terms social movements and active citizenship in order to establish the categorial apparatus it operates with. The following part of the paper briefly analyzes social movements as democratizing agents as well as the reasons for reemergence of social movements in Southeast Europe. In the last part the paper analyzes the concept of democratic innovation, its definition, theoretical and methodological approaches as well as empirical findings in the area.