An innovative pilot project to involve 10,000 randomly-selected German citizens in political debate and policymaking, one of the largest programmes of its kind ever undertaken, was launched this month.
BürgerForum (Citizens’ Forum) 2011 is aimed at devising ideas to promote and strengthen social cohesion and equal opportunities in an increasingly diverse society. A total of 10,000 citizens, selected randomly across 25 cities and counties, will take part in the exercise between now and May 2011.
The project is a partnership between the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation, agencies that fund projects for social good. It builds on the experience gained from a series of 350-strong citizen’s forums run by the partners in 2008 and 2009 on Europe and the economy.
At the beginning of next year, local forums with 400 participants will be created in each of 25 locations. To pick the forum members, a call centre will dial randomly generated telephone numbers within each area code. Once someone answers and agrees to take part, they will be issued with instructions and log-in details.
In an eight-week moderated online discussion broken down into sub-topics, the participants will subsequently develop their own suggested programs for social cohesion and equal opportunities. The discussions will be self-moderated, with assistance and training from specialist teams. After the regional forums have deliberated, all 10,000 national participants will debate the results on an internet discussion platform with 100 moderators, with a view towards agreeing a single national outcome document by May 2011.
The final project outcome will not be formally bound into any specific political or government decision-making process, but will be made available to all public bodies and any other interested organisation, as well as the citizens themselves, to build into whatever practical follow-up projects they wish.
Hans Hagedorn, Managing Director of specialist software company Zebralog which is running the online aspects of the project, told E-Government Bulletin: “it will always be impossible to connect every debate results with a piece of implementation work.” However, he said: “If you have 10,000 people deciding a topic is important, and producing concrete proposals, then this is influential on debate. To get people to agree on things, and focus on things, and articulate things, will put citizens on the same level as politicians.”
NOTE: Article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 313.
Click here to visit/return to issue 313 index
