Also in Germany a dramatic decline in satisfaction with democracy to below 50% has been observed. Increasingly, many people experience politics as something that no longer has anything to do with their lives. It often seems that important issues are delayed for years and that there is little attention paid to the concerns of citizens. New forms of cooperation are therefore needed to bridge the gap between citizens and politics.
With the pilot project ‘Citizens’ Assembly for Democracy’ nexus and IFOK tested a lot-based participatory process supported by civil society on the initiative of Mehr Demokratie e.V. and with the support of Schöpflin Foundation and Mercator Foundation. In the three-stage process, nexus was responsible for designing and implementing the Citizens’ Assembly in Leipzig, while IFOK organised the preparatory regional conferences and the Day for Democracy, where the citizens’ report was handed over.
Further information can be found here.
The Citizens’ Assembly, modelled on the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, was attended by 160 randomly selected citizens from all over Germany. Over two weekends, they jointly drew up 22 recommendations on how to reform or supplement Germany’s representative democracy, which are compiled in the citizens’ report.
Summary of the assembly’s recommendations
Duration: 11/2018 – 12/2019
Client: Mehr Demokratie e.V.
Team: Dr. Christine von Blanckenburg (Project manager), Nicolas Bach, Leonie Hasselberg, Christian Kusch, Ina Metzner, Uta Zetek
Project partner: IFOK GmbH, Schöpflin Stiftung