Democracy is navigating a challenging phase. Diffuse distrust in political actors, affective polarization and democratic backsliding, have become recurrent themes in public debates and scientific works. In response, actors across Europe and beyond are experimenting with democratic innovations—new ways of giving people a direct voice in shaping policies, such as participatory budgeting, citizens’ assemblies, and local referenda. These practices aim to re-engage citizens, foster trust, and make governance more inclusive.
From Innovation to Scaling: The Next Challenge
We know a lot about the types, impacts, and causes of democratic innovations. But a central question remains underexplored: what allows these experiments to grow? What makes them scale – expanding their influence and presence across space, time, governance, and institutional levels? Scaling is not the same as impact. While impact refers to outcomes at a point in time, scaling is about the process – how an innovation spreads, embeds, and matures.
This is the core question of ScaleDem, a Horizon Europe project launched in December 2024. ScaleDem explores how democratic innovations evolve and take root sustainably. Building on social innovation research and democratic theory, we have developed an analytical framework that looks at four directions of scaling: Scaling Out, Scaling High, Scaling Deep, and Scaling In.
The Four Directions of Scaling
- Scaling Out – Going wider. A participatory budgeting initiative may start in one neighborhood, then spread to multiple districts or cities. Scaling Out is about geographic spread, replication across institutions or policy areas, and inclusion of a broader and more diverse set of participants.
- Scaling High – Climbing the ladder of power. Innovations gain traction within formal governance, becoming part of official policies, laws, or administrative routines. A citizens’ assembly that evolves from a pilot project to a legally mandated institution is a clear example.
- Scaling Deep – Reaching hearts and minds. This dimension is about shaping civic culture, values, and identities. It focuses on the shifts that occur when participants feel empowered, trust democracy more, and sustain civic engagement beyond the innovation itself.
- Scaling In – Improving the process from within. This involves enhancing fairness, inclusivity, transparency, and deliberative quality as the innovation grows. Scaling In ensures that democratic practices don’t just expand but also remain robust and effective.
Barriers and Enabling Factors
Scaling is inherently complex because it requires resources – time, funding, expertise, and political capital – that are always limited. Barriers are therefore the norm rather than the exception. Our framework identifies five recurring challenges:
- Institutional barriers: bureaucratic inertia and rigid procedures can slow adoption.
- Political resistance: elites may resist sharing decision-making power or ignore citizen recommendations.
- Cultural obstacles: weak civic traditions, low trust, or polarization can limit engagement.
- Resource constraints: limited funding, expertise, or staff often stall promising initiatives.
- Design flaws: poorly structured processes or overly context-specific models reduce scalability.
Yet, there are enabling factors that can tip the balance. Strong institutional support – legal mandates, stable funding, or administrative teams – helps innovations endure. Cultural readiness and public discourse that values participation create fertile ground for engagement. Leadership and champions – whether mayors, civil society leaders, or skilled facilitators – are often decisive in building coalitions and gaining legitimacy. Finally, adaptable and high-quality design ensures that innovations can evolve and replicate without losing their core principles.
Insights from Practice
During the Rencontres Européennes de la Participation in Strasbourg (March 2025), ScaleDem members facilitated an interactive workshop exploring how participatory budgeting, mini-publics, and local referenda could scale in different contexts. A key insight was that there is no one-size-fits-all formula. Each innovation faces a unique mix of barriers and enabling conditions depending on local political, cultural, and institutional dynamics. Participants stressed the importance of adapting without reinventing—building on proven formats rather than starting from scratch. This approach saves resources, avoids past mistakes, and increases the chances of successful scaling.
Scaling as a Dynamic Process
The four scaling dimensions are interconnected. Progress in one direction often influences others. For example, institutionalization (Scaling High) can improve visibility and process quality (Scaling In), while broader participation (Scaling Out) can foster empowerment and civic values (Scaling Deep). Conversely, rapid expansion can dilute quality, or formalization may reduce grassroots flexibility. Understanding these dynamics and feedback loops is essential to scaling strategically.
Visualizing Scaling: Spider Charts
Scaling is multi-dimensional, and visual tools such as spider charts help capture this complexity. They provide a snapshot of how an innovation performs across the four dimensions, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement. For example, a participatory budgeting process may score high on Out and In but lag on High or Deep, guiding where efforts should focus. Such visuals are not only analytical tools but also effective ways to communicate scaling progress to policymakers and practitioners (see example here).
What’s Next?
Our analytical framework is only the starting point. The next step is to develop an actual Theory of Scaling—an evidence-based understanding of why some innovations thrive while others stall. Using an array of multiple research methods, we will examine patterns of barriers and enablers across diverse cases.
By framing scaling in these four directions ScaleDem offers practitioners, policymakers, and researchers a flexible yet practical framework to answer three key questions: Where do we want this innovation to go? What stands in the way? What can help us move forward?
Ultimately, ScaleDem’s aim is to move beyond isolated pilots toward sustainable democratic ecosystems, where innovations grow, adapt, and endure.
Read more about our analytical framework at this link.
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Photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash