The public legitimacy of democratic innovations: reflections on the Global Assembly

Abstract This article discusses the legitimacy of democratic innovations based on communication practices directed to the external public. There is a movement in the field of public management toward implementing minipublics in general and specific mechanisms such as citizens’ assemblies. However, a challenge arises regarding recognizing these democratic management practices as legitimate, especially by ordinary citizens not directly involved in them. We argue that the systematic existence of external communication practices justifying both the existence of these democratic innovations and their achievements and outcomes is as fundamental as the internal procedures guiding their existence. The propositions of this article are linked to an exploratory analysis of the Global Assembly, which took place in 2021 with 100 citizens from 49 countries.