Citizens' Conference
| Citizen participation (→ overviews ) | |
| Consensus conference / citizens' conference
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| Goal / function | Influencing public discussions, consulting, advising decision-makers |
| typical topics | controversial issues of public concern |
| context | Questions at local to transnational level |
| typical clients | Authorities |
| Duration | 3-day conference, 2 preparatory meetings |
| Participants (number and selection) | 10–30 people; random selection |
| important actors, developers, rights holders | Danish Technology Assessment Authority |
| geographical distribution | v. a. Denmark , also other European countries |
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Source: Nanz / Fritsche, 2012, pp. 86–87 |
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The citizen conference (also consensus conference , Citizen Advisory Group ) is a procedure for citizen participation in political decision-making processes. The term is not protected and is used in various forms.
Origin of the citizens' conference
The forerunner of today's citizens' conferences is the expert-oriented technology assessment that emerged in the 1970s - the first institutionalization of which was established with the American Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). Since the 1990s, especially in the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland, there has been a trend towards new forms of political advice from representative groups of citizens. Workshop designs with a similar emphasis have been tested in these countries under names such as “ Consensus Conference ”, “ Scenario Workshop ” and “ Voting Conference ”. They should enable participation and contribute to the further development of democracy in the knowledge society.
The move away from the sole fixation of experts and the move towards representative citizen forums , for example, led to a PubliForum based on the Danish consensus conference in Switzerland at the end of the 1990s , in which citizens initially worked out votes on the subject of “Electricity and Society”. Further PubliForums were then held, for example on the question of genetically modified foods and transplant medicine. Since the 1990s, around 60 citizens' conferences on future issues have been held in the USA and Europe. The majority of these conferences pointed features of the Danish consensus conference on, at the 12 to 30 representatively selected citizens expert hearings develop a sophisticated knowledge and evaluation range, on the basis of which in the form of citizens votes or citizen report make recommendations to the policy.
Reasons for Citizens' Conferences
The transition from an industrial society to a knowledge society , i.e. the increasing change in value creation from labor and material-intensive processing of raw materials to increased further development and new combination of existing knowledge, puts politicians under increased pressure to make decisions. Democratic regimes in particular are faced with the challenge of developing practices that allow broad strata of the population to make informed decisions, even against the background of a rapidly growing political and technical specificity.
The citizens' conference practiced in the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, but also in the USA, can be a procedure to raise the quality of citizen participation when deciding on, in particular, political and technical questions of the future. In Denmark, for example, the results of citizens' conferences had a direct influence on legislation, so that a new form of policy advice can be spoken of by representatively selected and appropriately informed citizens.
European Citizens' Conferences
On October 7th and 8th, 2006 in Brussels, 200 citizens set the topics “Energy and Environment”, “Family and Social Security” and “Global Role of Europe and Immigration” as the key points of a “European Agenda” to be drawn up.
The topics defined in this way were further elaborated in the respective member states in a series of national citizens' conferences using the World Café method . The German Citizens' Conference took place on February 24th and 25th, 2007 on the premises of the Foreign Office in Berlin (Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier acted as patron of the conference). As a result, a "German Citizens' Declaration" was drawn up, which was handed over to various political decision-makers on February 25, 2007.
The citizens' conference held in Germany was part of a Europe-wide dialogue and participation process that was carried out in all 27 member states of the EU. The 27 national citizens 'declarations drawn up were ultimately incorporated into a final document drawn up on May 9 and 10, 2007 in Brussels, the “European Citizens' Declaration”.
Continuation of the process
In December 2008 the European Citizens' Conference on the “Economic and Social Future of Europe” was continued. In a multi-stage process, which will lead to a citizens' summit in May 2009, randomly selected citizens can again work out a joint program for the development of the EU.
Local citizens' conferences
Here (by lot or representative) selected citizens discuss future issues of society. It usually takes place over several days or a series of weekend workshops, which serve to develop the necessary specialist knowledge, select suitable experts from the different camps and prepare a public expert hearing, on the basis of which a citizen's vote is then created as an instrument for participatory citizen advice and representatives is passed on by politics and the press.
Related methods are e.g. B .:
Citizens' conferences in Germany
- 2001 - Citizens' Conference “Dispute Gen-Diagnostics.” Dresden: German Hygiene Museum .
- 2004 - Citizens' Conference on Stem Cell Research. Berlin: Max Delbrück Center.
- 2005 - Citizens' Conference on Brain Research. Dresden: German Hygiene Museum . (National citizens 'conference as part of a European citizens' conference.)
- 2006 - Citizens' Conference “The causes of right-wing extremism and possible counter-strategies in politics.” Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung .
- 2010 - Citizens' Conference “Energy Use of the Future - Perspectives for Germany.” Science in Dialogue Initiative (WiD).
- 2010 - Citizens' Conference "Setting Priorities in Medical Care." Lübeck (University of Lübeck)
- 2013 - Citizens' Conference "Distribution decisions in health policy - Who should decide and how?" Mainz (Johannes Gutenberg University)
swell
- Burow OA & Pauli B (2006) .: From expert focus to the “wisdom of the many”. The citizens' conference as an instrument of participatory policy advice. In: Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Dietmar Molthagen (ed.) (2006). The causes of right-wing extremism and possible counter-strategies of politics. Pp. 33-58.
- Burow OA & Kühnemuth K. (2004): Do science and politics need citizen advice ? In: Tannert C. & Wiedmann P. (eds.) (2004). Stem cells in discourse. A reading and work book for the citizens' conference. Munich: Ökom, pp. 117–130; Digitized version (PDF; 173 kB)
- Joss S. (2003): Between Policy Advice and Public Discourse - Experiences with Citizens' Conferences in Europe. In: Schicktanz, S & Naumann, J. (ed.). Citizens conference dispute genetic diagnostics. A model project for public participation in the bioethical discourse. Opladen, pp. 15-35
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Patrizia Nanz , Miriam Fritsche: Citizen Participation Handbook: Procedures and Actors, Chances and Limits , bpb (vol. 1200), 2012 (PDF; 1.37 MB) → to order the printed edition at bpb.de.
- ↑ cf. Joss 2003
- ↑ cf. Joss 2003
- ↑ Overview of the procedure of the European Citizens' Conference ( Memento of the original of September 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ German citizens' declaration on the future of Europe ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 658 kB)
- ↑ Website of the European Citizens' Conference ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Available online (PDF; 960 kB)
- ^ Homepage of the Citizens' Conference
