Mark Swift discusses how participatory governance and democratic innovation can help rebuild trust in public life.
This article draws on a policy working paper exploring how democratic innovation can strengthen trust, participation and governance in the UK. The full paper examines these ideas in greater depth and outlines practical pathways for “dialling up democracy” in the years ahead. You can read it here.
Declining trust in democracy
“I don’t think my voice matters. Politicians don’t care about people like me.”
A young person said this during a recent community consultation. It was a simple comment, but it captured a wider mood: a growing sense that politics is something done to people rather than with them. That feeling is not only disheartening. It is a warning light for democracy itself.
Public trust in politics has been declining for years. In Britain, only around 14% of people say they trust politicians, while trust in national government remains relatively low compared with many other OECD countries (ONS 2022; Durrant 2024; Electoral Commission 2025). Many people feel that politics is distant, elitist and disconnected from the realities of daily life – from the cost of living to insecure work and poverty.
Young people are especially pessimistic. In a recent survey, more than half of British teenagers said they believe their lives will be worse than their parents’ (Devlin 2024). While these concerns reflect broader economic and social pressures, they also shape the context in which democracy operates. Democratic systems depend on confidence that participation is meaningful and that collective decisions can improve people’s lives. When that sense of possibility weakens, the foundations of democratic life become more fragile.
Trust and participation are not just institutional questions. They are also human ones. Research in neuroscience suggests that recognition and respect are not simply abstract values but social experiences linked to brain systems involved in emotion, empathy and social connection (Eisenberger 2012; Khalaila et al. 2023). When people feel invisible or ignored, their willingness to engage with institutions declines.
Why democracy needs renewal
This is why democracy needs renewal. Not by abandoning it, but by strengthening it – by “dialling up democracy” so that citizens play a more active role in shaping the decisions that affect their lives.
Part of the challenge lies in the structure of governance itself. Britain’s democratic institutions still carry the imprint of another age. The House of Commons, famously organised around two adversarial benches supposedly two sword lengths apart, reflects political traditions that developed centuries ago. While democratic institutions have evolved since then, many people still experience politics as distant and inaccessible.
In England, more than half of people say they have little influence over decisions that affect their lives (Carnegie UK 2025). At the same time, highly centralised governance from Whitehall continues to contribute to regional inequalities and the persistent north–south divide (Jones 2023).
Devolution offers one route toward change. In principle, transferring powers from central government to regions should bring decisions closer to the people and places they affect (Henderson et al. 2024). However, English devolution has often been uneven and technocratic, with accountability mechanisms still developing (Newman et al. 2024; Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities 2023). Without meaningful public participation, devolution risks shifting power between institutions without transforming how people experience democracy.
Pathways for democratic innovation
Initiatives such as the Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIPs) illustrate how this shift might begin to take shape. Designed to strengthen regional evidence ecosystems and collaboration between universities, local authorities and communities, LPIPs are exploring new ways of connecting research, policy and lived experience in place-based decision-making (LPIP Hub 2025; UK Research and Innovation 2024). By strengthening local capacity for learning and innovation, they offer an important testbed for how democratic renewal might work in practice.
Across the UK and internationally, new approaches are emerging that aim to bring citizens closer to decision-making.
Participatory budgeting is one example. Scotland has been a pioneer in allowing communities to decide directly how portions of public spending are allocated, while cities such as Paris have used participatory budgeting to fund hundreds of citizen-led projects (PB Scotland n.d; Ville de Paris 2024). These models are not without challenges, but they show how local people can exercise real influence over public priorities.
Digital platforms also offer new possibilities. Taiwan’s vTaiwan initiative allows citizens to deliberate online and contribute to policy discussions, demonstrating how technology can broaden participation when designed carefully (Ho 2022). Yet digital democracy also raises new challenges. Without transparency and strong governance, algorithmic systems can reinforce bias and exclusion. The Ada Lovelace Institute has argued that stronger civil society participation is needed if AI governance is to become more accountable and representative (Ada Lovelace Institute 2023).
Deliberative forums provide another pathway. Citizens’ assemblies bring together representative groups of citizens to examine complex issues and propose solutions. Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly helped pave the way for major constitutional change by creating space for informed public dialogue (Palese 2018). Across the UK, community organising and civic participation initiatives also show how dialogue, evidence and shared power can make democracy more tangible in everyday life.
Institutional openness matters too. In the UK, proposals for a Hillsborough Law –rooted in the families’ long struggle for truth and accountability following the 1989 disaster – seek to establish a statutory duty of candour on public authorities (Ministry of Justice 2025). Current debates about the legislation, including concerns that parts of the original proposal could be diluted or applied unevenly, illustrate how difficult institutional transparency can be to secure. Yet the principle remains vital: candour should not only appear after failure or tragedy but should be embedded as an everyday norm of democratic governance.
Finally, renewing democracy means looking beyond narrow ideas of representation. Elections remain fundamental, but democratic legitimacy cannot rest on representative democracy alone. In many governance systems, individuals and organisations claim to speak for communities or sectors without a clear mandate or accountability to those they claim to represent. Alongside elections, democracy also depends on deliberative forums and organised civic representation that remain accountable to members, stakeholders and communities. Renewing democracy, therefore, requires not only reforming formal institutions but also strengthening the wider governance and civic networks through which citizens can influence collective decisions (Warren 2009).
A call to dial up democracy
These innovations are not merely political experiments. They are also part of a broader story about how societies adapt and evolve. In 2025, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their work explaining innovation-driven economic growth (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2026). Aghion and Howitt’s theory of creative destruction describes how new ideas and institutions replace outdated systems, enabling societies to adapt to changing conditions (Aghion and Howitt 1992).
The same insight applies to democracy. Institutional renewal requires the courage to question inherited routines and experiment with new ways of organising power.
The promise of “dialling up democracy” is therefore not abstract. It is practical and everyday. Imagine local budgets that citizens help shape. Imagine digital platforms designed to widen participation rather than fuel division. Imagine decision-making that is more transparent, more inclusive and closer to the communities it affects.
Democracy has never been a finished project. It is something societies must continually renew.
We already have many of the tools and ideas needed to do so. The question now is whether we have the courage and resolve to use them.
Read the paper –
This blog was written by Mark Swift, Founder and CEO of Wellbeing Enterprises CIC.
Find out more about the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.