WHAT CAN NORTH AND SOUTH TEACH ONE ANOTHER? : ACCELERATING THE TRANSFER OF DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS

实行民主的国家在历史上向我们表明，民主在哪里辜负了人民。为了解决这一问题，许多城市和国家尝试了各种民主形式，以创新公民参与、政策制定和稳定领导的方法。一些民主创新已经跨越了各大洲，而另一些则没有在发源地之外产生太大影响。研究问题是：民主创新从南向北传播和从北向南传播需要什么条件？哪些因素可能有助于或阻碍这些创新的传播？拟议的方法分为三个工作包（WP）。第一个WP将利用英国现有的二级数据，使用空间几何模型研究英国城市民主创新的扩散。第二个工作方案将侧重于促进或阻碍全球北方和南方之间创新传播的因素，特别侧重于非洲。第三个WP将部署一个联合调查实验，对我在WP 1和WP 2中开发的精英联系人进行调查。如果能够获得外部资金，类似的联合实验可以部署在英国和一个或多个非洲国家（包括我的祖国尼日利亚）居民的代表性样本上。了解驱动或阻碍创新可转移性的因素可以在很大程度上帮助领导人做出明智的决策，在公共和私营部门之间建立更有效的合作，并在与公民一起开展创新项目之前采取明智的策略。

Nations that practice democracy show us in history where democracy has failed its people. To address this failure,various cities and nations have experimented with variants of democracy to innovate methods for citizenengagement, policy making and stable leadership. Some democratic innovations have found their way acrosscontinents while others have not made much impact beyond the place of origination. The research question states:What conditions are necessary for democratic innovations to diffuse from South to North and vice versa? Whatfactors could help or hinder the diffusion of these innovations?The proposed methodology is divided into three working packages (WP). The first WP will leverage existingsecondary data in the UK to investigate the diffusion of democratic innovations in UK cities using spatial statisticalmodels. The second WP will focus on factors that promote or hinder the diffusion of innovations between theGlobal North and South, with a particular focus on Africa. The third WP will deploy a conjoint survey experiment onthe elite contacts I have developed in WP1 and WP2. If able to secure external funding, similar conjointexperiments could be deployed on a representative sample of residents of the UK and one or more Africancountries, including my home country of Nigeria.Understanding the factors that drive or hinder the transferability of innovations could go a long way in assistingleaders in making informed decisions, create more effective collaborations between public and private sectors, andadopt wise strategies before embarking on an innovative project with citizens.