Participation strengthens trust in governments

The better citizen participation, the greater the trust in the government. This is one of the findings of a survey published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in December 2024.
‘Democratic governments today stand at a critical juncture, steering environmental and digital transitions while facing increased polarisation within their countries, heightened geopolitical tensions as well as the social consequences of economic developments. In this environment, building and maintaining trust in public institutions is a priority for many governments around the world,’ explains the OECD in its study.
Feeling of self-efficacy increases trust
The second OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions shows the levels and drivers of trust in public institutions across 30 OECD countries in 2023 and their evolution since 2021.
According to the survey, 69 per cent of those who feel they have a say in government actions trust the national government, while only 22 per cent of those who feel they have no say do so.
Doubts about politicians and administrations
Many people have doubts about the trustworthiness of administrative staff and elected politicians. Only 30 per cent trust that the government can stand up to a company's influence in favour of policies that may benefit the company's industry but could harm society as a whole.
In Germany, 29 per cent of respondents believe that the political system allows people like them to have a say in the government's actions. Germans who feel that the current political system does not give people like them a say trust the federal government 54 percentage points less than those who feel they are listened to. This trust gap is larger than the average gap of 47 percentage points in OECD countries.
Parties in a crisis of confidence
Germans trust political parties the least at 26 per cent, followed by the news media at 34 per cent and the Bundestag at 35 per cent.
The OECD therefore advises strengthening citizen participation through policies and procedures to promote the effectiveness and inclusion of all people. 'Governments need to support spaces and capacities for civic and political engagement, while establishing clear expectations on the role of deliberative and direct democracy,' is one recommendation.
Citizens' assemblies can support the acceptance of political decisions, the OECD explained in a report published in 2020. ‘The wealth of evidence we collected in the report shows that convening a wide-cross section of society for numerous days to learn, deliberate, and develop collective, informed recommendations is an effective way of overcoming polarisation and finding consensus on the thorniest policy dilemmas,’ explained Claudia Chwalisz and Ieva Cesnulaityte, authors of the report. This applies in particular to issues that deal with values, require compromises and involve long-term concerns that go beyond short-term thinking in terms of election periods.
Door-knocking effective
The results of the ‘Hallo Bundestag’ project carried out by the ‘Es geht LOS’ association show similar results to the OECD survey. In six Bundestag constituencies, around 25 randomly selected people aged 12 and over from the constituencies discussed current federal policy issues with each other and with local members of the Bundestag in so-called electoral district days.
The so-called ‘outreach random selection method’ was used for ‘Hallo Bundestag’. In this process, people who do not respond to the written invitation to a mini-public are motivated to participate once again through door-to-door visits. This procedure has also been proven to reach people who do not otherwise take part in political events, do not vote, feel powerless or belong to the ‘silent groups’ for other reasons.
Trust in politicians strengthened
An independent scientific evaluation shows that trust in political institutions is higher after participating in the project than before. In particular, trust in politicians was strengthened.
‘38 per cent of the statements testify to positive changes in political understanding and optimism. They feel more hopeful and confident both with regard to their fellow citizens and their MPs. There is also an improved and more balanced understanding of politics,’ says the evaluation report. A quarter of those surveyed expressed increased political interest and commitment.
‘Hallo Bundestag’ was “very well suited to getting people more interested in politics, but above all because politicians were there,” explained one of the participants surveyed.
What does the ideal democracy look like?
So what should the ideal democratic system look like? Should citizens take their destiny into their own hands? Should they be allowed to make binding decisions or even completely replace non-functioning parliaments? Or is it not legitimate for a handful of selected citizens to have a say on behalf of others without direct responsibility and effective opportunities for representation?
Political scientists Prof André Bächtiger, Dr Saskia Goldberg and Marina Lindell have analysed the concept of ‘lottocracy’ and its chances of implementation. Bächtiger, Goldberg and Lindell wanted to know what the citizens themselves, as the addressees of such reform endeavours, think about randomly selected citizens' assemblies.
Citizens' assemblies with decision-making power?
They found that although respondents generally find such a form of democracy interesting, they are rather reluctant when it comes to decision-making power. The researchers observed this pattern in very different country contexts - in the politically highly polarised USA, in Ireland, where people already have a lot of experience with mini-publics, and in Finland, where there is a high level of political and social trust. However, only 15 to 25 per cent of those surveyed had ever heard of citizens' assemblies and only around four per cent had ever been involved.
The study also shows that, on the one hand, citizens who have already had experience with mini-publics are more open to citizens' assemblies with decision-making power. On the other hand, they also remain uncertain when it comes to the question of ‘decision-making power or just consultation’.
Approaches in East Belgium and Paris
Approaches to combining citizens' assemblies with decision-making powers and existing democratic institutions already exist at municipal level, for example in East Belgium and Paris. There, mini-publics are linked to the representative system.
‘The future of democracy therefore does not lie in replacing existing representative systems, but in intelligently combining representative and lottocratic institutions,’ concludes Bächtiger. ‘And this could not only result in more intelligent decisions, but also significantly increase citizens' satisfaction with democracy.’