While the advent of deliberative democracy has rejuvenated the theoretical terrain，the empirical emergence of this normative model in the field of governance has opened up a new frontier of research. In particular，exploring the role of grassroots deliberative democracy in governance can shed interesting insights with regards to the transformation of political life for ordinary citizens who are able to participate in deliberative governance. Switzerland，with its reputable direct democratic system，and continuous pursuit of participatory political innovations would be a fascinating example to gain lessons from. This paper therefore seeks to first provide a theoretical discussion establishing the important linkage between deliberative democracy and governance，and then delves into the case of Switzerland to examine the recent emergence of deliberative participatory practices. By looking at the role of grassroots deliberative democracy in governance，the Swiss experience yields critical perspectives regarding how the intersection and interaction of deliberative democracy and governance could inform about the potential effects of discursive participation in improving governance.