Enabling participation! Ideas for the democracy of tomorrow

There’s no such thing as one solution! – Diverse forms of participation are needed

All the discussions have proven: there’s no such thing as one solution. Instead, a combination of different forms of participation is required – both today and in the future – to enable every citizen to participate in a democracy of the many.One example of an idea developed in the workshops is a mentoring programme involving members of parliament. In the future, a regular exchange of ideas between politicians and young people could enable a better representation of the latter’s interests in the Bundestag. Another idea is the “Community 2.0”, which could encourage more people to get involved in politics through participatory offerings such as a lot-based citizens’ council and project-related working groups. Innovative approaches were also collected for the political parties of the future, such as the idea of a centrally organised, open party in which everyone can participate, directly implement ideas and, in this way, influence the party agenda.An overview of all prototypes developed during the ideas workshops can be found in the video playlist created by the version21 participants. A short summary is available for watching here:

Providing diverse opportunities isn’t enough – people need to trust them too

Whether it’s political parties, citizens’ councils or elections, it’s not enough just to provide many different ways of participating – people also need to trust them. But what does trust mean anyway? We asked the participants of our ideas workshop and the guests of our panel discussion and here are some of their answers:

So trust can relate to a whole range of different things; it’s highly subjective and subject to constant change. Different forms of trust also play a role when it comes to political participation. On the one hand, trust requires having the confidence to believe that our own participation can make a difference, that is, “confidence in one’s own self-efficacy”. The extent to which someone has this confidence depends strongly on previous experience as well as on factors such as education and income.

On the other hand, citizens will only participate in elections, citizens’ councils and other opportunities for participation if they can trust that the former will be conducted fairly and that the results will be taken seriously by political representatives.

Trust in politics as well as in democratic processes is important. But how does this trust develop?

The political consultant and communication trainer Johannes Hillje, who was a guest at our ideas workshop, summarised the five factors that influence trust in politics: (1) the expertise of politicians; (2) the predictability of politicians’ actions; (3) the leadership qualities of politicians; (4) the feeling of being represented by politicians; and (5) the transparency of politicians’ decisions. How politicians are evaluated by means of these five criteria shows how much they are either trusted or distrusted.

Political scientist Pippa Norris has developed another helpful categorisation. She distinguishes between so-called “diffuse” trust and “specific” trust. The former refers to our own attitude towards the basic principles of the political system and the (perceived) ability of democracy as a whole to act. “Specific trust”, by contrast, is directly related to the respective players – meaning, to how we perceive a specific politician. In some cases, these two types of trust can differ greatly; for example, trust in democracy as a whole may be very high, while trust in one or several politicians very low.

In fact, a 2019 study by the Bertelsmann Foundation showed that trust in democracy as a form of government is generally high in Germany. Trust in political parties, however, tends to be low, and satisfaction with democratic processes and results is declining too. In particular, trust in participatory processes seems to be especially at risk. How can we increase this trust again in the future?

For this issue, too, the participants in our ideas workshop developed a variety of solutions. One of them – the “Democratic Year” – is briefly introduced to you in this video by participant Felicitas Richter:

It’s all in the mix! – Democracy needs trust just as it needs mistrust

So the solution is: trust levels good, all good? Yes and no. Because democracy needs trust just as it needs a “healthy” portion of mistrust.

According to ZEIT ONLINE journalist Lenz Jacobsen also a guest at our ideas workshop, each individual plays an important role in our increasingly fragmented and digitalised public sphere. Critically observing and commenting on political events and intervening in public debates has become much easier in the digital age and has long since ceased to be the preserve of the big media corporations. This has brought with it new challenges, such as the rapid spread of false information – so-called “fake news” – but also new opportunities for citizens to contact politicians directly. Platforms like abgeordnetenwatch.de (Lawmakers Watch) or FragDenStaat (AskTheState) enable ordinary citizens not only to find out about the activities of politicians, but also to initiate critical inquiries themselves.

It’s not a matter of blindly trusting in politics. What’s needed instead is a good mixture of basic trust in democratic processes and a vigilant public that critically observes the implementation and results of measures and the players involved in political processes – and, if necessary, calls politicians to account.

The following therefore applies both to the relationship between trust and mistrust and to future forms of participation: it’s all in the mix! In order to involve as many people as possible, democracies should rely on diverse participatory formats that simultaneously strengthen trust in them and create opportunities for better control, more transparency and space for critical engagement with politics.

Visual impressions of the idea workshops and the discussions can be found in the picture galleries. Here, on the Z2X project page, all the video statements are available at a glance.

version21 in March

Young, Diverse, Female: How representative can the Bundestag be?

version21 in May

Protest, Petitions, Activism: Do we need political parties to make a political difference?

version21 in July

Digitally, Directly, by Drawing Lots: How do we want to participate politically in the future?

version21 in October

A Question of Trust: How will we hold together in the future?