Democracies are under pressure and public administrations must evolve to accommodate new forms of public participation. Participation processes may reproduce or disrupt existing power inequalities. Through a multi-method empirical study of “Participation Requests,” a new legislative policy tool to open up public services in Scotland, this article addresses an empirical gap on governance-driven democratic innovations (DIs). We use Young’s distinction of external and internal inclusion and find Participation Requests replicate the pitfalls of traditional forms of associative democracy. We contend that DIs should be co-produced between institutions and communities to bring a participatory and deliberative corrective to temper bureaucratic logics.

民主国家面临压力，公共行政部门必须发展以适应新形式的公众参与。参与过程可能会重现或破坏现有的权力不平等。通过对“参与请求”（一种在苏格兰开放公共服务的新立法政策工具）的多方法实证研究，本文解决了治理驱动的民主创新 (DI) 的实证差距。我们使用 Young 对外部和内部包容的区分，发现参与请求复制了传统形式的联合民主的陷阱。我们认为 DI 应该在机构和社区之间共同产生，以带来参与性和审议性的纠正，以缓和官僚逻辑。