Climate meets local government – model project on citizens' councils and direct democracy

Political transformations such as climate protection are increasingly meeting with resistance and a lack of acceptance among the population. Citizens' assemblies have the potential to support these transformations by discussing complex and controversial issues in a differentiated manner and developing high-quality, ambitious recommendations. Citizens' assemblies have shown that they can develop well-founded recommendations for action that are supported by a broad section of the population. However, experience in Germany and internationally shows that these recommendations are often inadequately implemented by political decision-makers. This damages the legitimacy and reputation of citizens' assemblies and hinders necessary political change. The project aims to contribute to making the implementation of citizens' assembly recommendations more effective.

innovative form of citizen participation to make informed and democratically legitimate decisions that are supported by a broad section of the population.
The project aims to spark a comprehensive social debate on climate protection in the municipality and show that far-reaching political changes can be implemented with the consent of the population. In doing so, we want to highlight how deliberative and direct democracy can complement each other in a meaningful way to tackle pressing challenges together. The model project represents a democratic innovation because it combines dialogic citizen participation with direct democracy to complement representative democracy in a meaningful way.

In the first phase of the project, council resolutions approve the implementation of both a climate citizens' assembly and a council referendum. In the second phase, a citizens' assembly is held, followed by the council referendum in the third phase. Two different variants are to be tested in a total of three to four municipalities:
Variant 1:
•    The municipal council formulates an open question
•    The citizens' council develops recommendations
•    Referendum on the recommendations of the citizens' council
Variant 2:
•    The municipal council formulates alternative options on a topic and asks the citizens' council for an assessment
•    Referendum on the municipal council's voting question
We support the organisation and smooth running of citizens' assemblies and council referendums. The citizens' assemblies are facilitated by experienced moderators and experts. The results are fed directly into the council referendums, enabling the municipality to implement democratically legitimised recommendations.