“A citizens’ assembly can build trust”
In December 2024 and January 2025, the Bördehalle Citizens' Jury in the western German municipality of Welver addressed the future of a dilapidated sports and event hall.
What made this special was that the convening of this mini-public, carried out by the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft (Open Society Initiative) on behalf of the municipality, followed on from a survey conducted by the GESIS Leibniz Institute für Sozialwissenschaften (GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences,, which examined whether the people of Welver feel sufficiently heard in decision-making processes and how citizen participation can be improved.
Survey on satisfaction with democracy
In two accompanying online surveys (before and after the Citizens' Jury meetings), topics such as satisfaction with democracy and the relationship to politics were surveyed, among other things. The effect of the Citizens' Jury as a participatory measure on these attitudes was examined.
The results show that the mini-public was rated by a majority as a trustworthy body and that its implementation contributed to a greater awareness of the need for compromise.
Interview with Andreas Meinlschmidt
Andreas Meinlschmidt, programme coordinator for participation at the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft and responsible for the Citizens' Jury in Welver, spoke in his interview about his perspectives on mini-publics and the role of participation in building trust in democracy.
The interview first appeared on the website of the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft.
Question: What does the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft hope to achieve with participatory formats such as citizens' assemblies?
Meinlschmidt: Democracy thrives on people meeting, listening to each other and searching for solutions together. But it is precisely these spaces that are often lacking. Many people feel that they are not represented politically, while others have little contact with what is happening outside their own lives. what happens outside their own reality.
As the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft, we use participatory formats to create spaces for discussion, for developing concrete ideas, for constructive criticism and for social participation.
Question: What is the function of the Citizens' Assembly participatory format?
Meinlschmidt: There are currently high hopes for democracy in citizens' assemblies. In cooperation with GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences and the municipality of Welver, we implemented the ‘NexCiCo’ project in 2024/25 and found out more about whether and under what conditions citizens' assemblies can be the desired upgrade for democracy.
In the municipality of Welver, we held the Bördehalle Citizens' Jury. What was special was that a scientific study accompanied the mini-public to find out what effects such a format can have on the political climate in a municipality and on trust in democracy.
The future of the Bördehalle - a local event hall - was a specific issue that had been controversial within the community for years and was at the centre of the debate. Thirty randomly selected citizens discussed the issue over the course of three meetings and presented their ideas to the local council in a recommendation report.
Question: Now for the crucial question: Are mini-publics an effective means of restoring trust in democracy? What did you find out in the project?
Meinlschmidt: There is no simple answer to this question. Research to date shows that dialogue-oriented formats such as citizens' assemblies can fulfil important democratic functions.
Many participants find political decisions made following citizens' assemblies more comprehensible and fair. The random selection process in particular allows citizens' assemblies to involve people who otherwise rarely or never engage in politics. However, it is still unclear whether and how citizens' assemblies have an indirect impact on the general population beyond the participants.
We tried to find this out with two surveys in the ‘NexCiCo’ project. To this end, our scientific partner conducted a survey before and after the citizens' assembly meeting and examined the extent to which the mood of the respondents had changed. Among other things, questions were asked about willingness to compromise, trust in politics and fairness in the citizens' assembly process. As the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft, we have drawn five key conclusions from the process.
1. A citizens' assembly can build trust
The citizens' assembly is perceived as credible not only by the participants, but also by the wider population. Trust in the assembly was even higher than trust in the local council. The work was considered to be fact-based and reasonable. This reveals an important potential for local authorities: well-designed participation can create legitimacy - especially when complementing established institutions and particularly in conflictual or politically deadlocked situations.
2. A citizens' assembly must not remain the only form of participation
The Citizens' Jury achieved a high level of awareness in a comparatively small municipality. At the same time, opportunities for active engagement remained limited. For participation to have an impact beyond the circle of participants, open, low-threshold access and formats are needed that also create points of contact outside the committee. Possible options here include the submission of opinions online and offline or public debates, the results of which are then discussed by the mini-public in its meetings.
3. A citizens' assembly only has an impact on certain aspects of the understanding of democracy
The Citizens' Jury has had an impact in certain areas, such as changing attitudes towards political compromise. Other attitudes, such as the feeling of political self-efficacy or the willingness to participate actively, remained largely unchanged. This shows that if you want to strengthen participation in the long term, you have to think beyond one-off formats and create lasting ways of getting people involved.
4. A mini-public must be taken seriously by politicians
The Citizens' Jury was able to have an impact because the topic, procedure and political involvement were well coordinated and because the process was supported by local politicians. The recommendations were accepted at a public municipal council meeting and received media attention.
Participation is particularly effective when it is not treated as a symbolic add-on, but as a serious political negotiation. How the results are handled is crucial for long-term perception. This is not about complete implementation of the wording, but about political decisions being transparently justified and visibly linked back to the process. This is the only way to build trust that participation is more than just symbolism and a one-off format.
5. A mini-public increases the ability to compromise
The Citizens' Jury has shown that deliberative formats can help to soften entrenched political attitudes. This became clear in the change in attitude towards compromise: Agreement with the statement that political compromises are a betrayal of principles decreased noticeably over the course of the project. This development suggests an increased willingness to recognise different perspectives and develop viable solutions together.
Participatory formats such as citizens' assemblies can not only contribute to addressing specific issues, but also strengthen understanding of democratic negotiation processes. They promote a political culture in which conflicts are resolved through mutual understanding.
Conclusion: A closer look is needed
Question: How would you sum up the role of citizens' assemblies for democracy?
Meinlschmidt: The five findings mentioned are (...) general conclusions for us as civil society and a starting point for further work. Important questions need to be explored in follow-up projects.
I recommend taking a look at the exact figures from the survey, which we have published in a report. The report ‘Compromise, Trust, Fairness’ is worth reading because it:
- highlights the tension between hope and challenges surrounding citizens' assemblies and democracy,
- provides references to current studies on the topic,
- describes the ‘NexCiCo’ project process in more detail,
- provides figures and comparative values from the ‘Welver Citizens' Assembly’,
- presents a further 10 specific recommendations and findings.