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Across established democracies, concerns about citizens' dissatisfaction with the way politics works are regularly voiced in the scholarly and public debate alike. The deficit in perceived democratic legitimacy is reflected in low levels of trust in political institutions and politicians, more specifically, lack of public compliance and coopera-tion, strong support for populist and protest parties, and a general feeling that politics is out of touch with ordi-nary citizens. In this context, policy-makers and scholars have experimented with the establishment of partici-patory processes- ranging from nationwide referendums to small-scale deliberative citizen panels-that are expected to counteract this deficit in perceived legitimacy. But is it actually working? Can participatory processes tackle resentment and strengthen per-ceptions of democratic legitimacy? Hannah Werner's doctoral disser-tation Pragmatic Citizens provides insights …