Strumenti ed esperienze di “citizens’ engagement” in ottica comparata: potenzialità e prospettive per il rinnovamento della democrazia rappresentativa e per la difesa dello stato di diritto

After framing the new trends in participatory and deliberative democracy (citizens’ engagement) from a comparative perspective, the contribution focuses on three very different experiences, comparing two stabilized democracies (Ireland and Belgium) with a semi-democratic system such as that of Hungary, verifying the degree of institutionalization of the relevant instruments and the purposes and risks of resorting to ‘democratic enhancement’ devices, which are different in the two different kinds of democracy.