Since 2011, grass root movements have emerged all over Europe to criticize the current polarization of wealth and power and to demand for more democracy. While the Indignados Movement in Spain asks for a “Real Democracy”, the Occupy Movements that have started with Wall Street in the US criticizes the concentration of wealth in the hand of the 1% of the population and calls for empowering the 99% left. Similar movements have also appeared in Germany, the UK, Greece, Italy and other European countries.

In parallel, practices and experiences of participatory and deliberative democracy have been developed in several towns and regions of Europe. They aim at providing space to those who are generally voiceless in the traditional representative system and at giving to citizens a broader possibility to have a direct impact on the design of policies. What are these practices?

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