Globalisation has generated a need for the renewal of local democracy and experiments in democratic innovation at the local level. While city governments may be constrained by the forces of globalism they are also active in developing strategies to improve democracy and, therefore, the local level has become a splendid laboratory of democratic innovations. In this context, civic engagement in local policies appears as a vital element of local governance aimed at both a relegitimation of the local democratic process and the improvement of efficiency. Citizens are not any more viewed as passive...