As the world celebrated International Volunteer Day on Dec. 5, I would like to take a brief look at what's going on around the world in terms of people's participation in civic society.

For the last few years, I have been drawn to ways to strengthen democracy. It's a fact that democratic societies around the world are in crisis.

I am also fascinated by the idea that a complex political system, such as the one governing China, cannot change overnight, but rather evolves through localized forms of deliberative democracy. This is a possibility based on the so-called village democracy model, which is quite spread out in several areas of China.

The issues at stake when we talk about bottom-up forms of democracy are so exciting that I even tried to get a PhD in this area, albeit unsuccessfully – at least so far.

What is really fascinating is the fact that at the same time, there is a complementary, intensive, overlapping and perhaps confusing whirlpool of activities happening on the ground at both the theoretical and academic levels.

The dynamics at play are even more compelling and difficult to follow because there are so many things happening in the Global South and North.

Let's not forget that Indonesia and the whole of Southeast Asia count in Kota Kita (Our City), a pearl of an organization based in Surakarta, Central Java, that is pushing for citizen participation and engagement in reforming the way cities and urban spaces are designed and experienced.

The bottom line is simple: Engaging and involving people in localized decision-making (but also at national and transnational levels) offers the best way to come up with solid, farsighted, long-term solutions.

The past two months have been very intensive, as academic institutions, local and global movements and organizations have been organizing a ton of events on the issue.

It started from Vancouver: The Canadian metropolis hosted the Democracy R&D conference on Sept. 19-20, with a focus on reviewing and learning from the best practices around citizens' assemblies, a model that is taking root around the world.

This is deliberation at its best, and a lot of interesting examples are emerging throughout the world.

It then shifted to South America: In early November, the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at Argentina’s National University of Rosario held its biennial Congress on Democracy with a theme very suited to the times, "The Perpetual Crises of Democracy: From perplexity to understanding".

From Nov. 20 to 22, the thriving South African city of Johannesburg was the venue of the 12th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, an initiative very much rooted in the Global South.

Others have followed. The Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance (CDDGG) at the University of Canberra, among the most authoritative academic institutions in this field, has been conducting monthly webinars on the occasion of its 10th anniversary to explore the 10 most pressing questions related to deliberation.

There have also been attempts to think, devise and implement multinational spaces for deliberation.

Nicole Curato, a professor at the center, has taken a lead with the Global Citizens' Assemblies Network (GloCAN), which is conducting "action-oriented empirical research on global citizens' assemblies and multinational forums of citizen deliberation", according to its website.

Curato is the leading academic on ensuring that deliberative spaces are inclusive and able to break with hegemonic democratic practices, where the elites capture the whole process.

We also have plenty of practical tools and manuals on how to start involving citizens in decision-making.

One of these is the Legislative Theatre run by Katy Rubin, founder of The People Act. This model aims to involve people who might not be naturally inclined toward or are excluded by default in any attempts to reform democracy.

Interestingly, it is a based on the Theater of the Oppressed, a form of interactive theater created by Brazilian theater director Augusto Boal.

Finally, Democracy Fitness runs workshops and training programs around the world to help people enhance key democratic skills or, as it calls them, democracy "muscles".

"Just like the muscles in our body, we might forget to exercise them, but we all have them! With Democracy Fitness training, we exercise our democracy muscles and keep them toned to engage in our democracy," explains the organization’s website.

Readers should be reassured that there are many more examples of bottom-up democracy practices around the world. Interestingly, the leading nation in deliberative practices is found in Asia.

Claudia Chwalisz, the founder CEO of DemNext, a leading nonprofit aiming to enable deliberative democracy, said in a recent LinkedIn post that Japan “has the most examples of citizens' assemblies in the world”.

On Dec. 15, the country is hosting a national forum on citizens' assemblies, which are often referred to as "mini publics".

There is no doubt that revitalizing democracy is one of our greatest challenges. Maybe it is the greatest challenge because if we do not address, inclusively and innovatively, the root causes of the democratic malaise, then other daunting challenges cannot be won.

Let's enthusiastically embrace the coming wave of bottom-up democratic rejuvenation. There’s space for everyone.

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The author is a freelance columnist who writes about development, democracy, human rights and climate issues in the Asia-Pacific.