Citizen forums: Not a panacea for the crisis of democracy

Saskia Goldberg and Prof. André Bächtiger Photo: Privat - In the British Journal of Political Science, Prof. André Bächtiger and Saskia Goldberg from the University of Stuttgart show how deliberative forums are accepted by citizens. Whether Artificial Intelligence or opera house: Deliberative citizen forums (mini publics), where ordinary people discuss political topics and projects, are on the upswing. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) even speaks of a "global deliberative wave". In Ireland, for example, randomly selected citizens discussed the introduction of same-sex marriage and the legalization of abortion. Relevant recommendations were taken up by the politicians and later confirmed by the electorate in nationwide referendums. In some groups, such as the climate action movement "Extinction Rebellion", these successes created the desire to give much more power to deliberative citizen procedures or to institutionalize them. However, such decision-making power for bodies that were not democratically legitimized also meets with criticism.