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Welcome!

Welcome to the Institute for Democracy and Participation Research! We are delighted that you are interested in our work.

The Institute for Democracy and Participation Research [IDPF] at the University of Wuppertal has existed since 1975, when it was established as the 'Citizen Participation Research Centre'. Among other things, the aleatory - i.e. based on random selection - participation procedure of the planning cell was developed and systematised here. It gives citizens the opportunity to contribute their opinions, life experience and expertise to political decision-making processes in a constructive and non-interest-led manner.

Executive Summary published in the "KIB" project!

The project "Artificial Intelligence and Citizens' Councils" has reached its first milestone with the publication of the Executive Summary. The summary summarises the results of research into the potential and challenges of artificial intelligence in the context of democracy and citizen participation and sets out a phase heuristic that can be used to consider the use of AI in citizens' councils.

You can read the entire text here.

Information about the survey in the "BEST" project

Have you received an invitation from us to take part in a survey on energy supply in your region? All information about the survey, participation in the competition and the project "Citizen Energy: Structural Strengthening & Participation" can be found here!

Report "Citizens' Councils in Germany" and database published!

The Citizens' Councils database, developed in cooperation with Mehr Demokratie e.V., has now gone live. To coincide with this, the first Citizens' Assembly report has been published, summarising and analysing the contents of the database.
The Citizens' Assembly database records and collects lot-based, deliberative citizen participation processes carried out in Germany from 1972 to the present day. The individual citizens' assemblies are recorded and analysed according to topic, type of procedure, institutional embedding and other categories. The database thus provides research infrastructure and creates a valuable approach for comparative policy research in the field of citizen participation. For practitioners, it offers a comprehensive overview of best practice examples.

The Citizens' Assembly Report covers almost 200 processes since 2000 and provides analyses, background information and context. The aim of the report is to capture lot-based participation in all its diversity. In particular, the topics of institutionalisation, special formats and the impact of citizens' assemblies are dealt with in depth. The report is the first of its kind and is freely available for download.

Click here to go directly to the Citizens' Councils database.

Click here to go directly to the report Citizens' Councils in Germany.

Evaluation of the Citizens' Council on Nutrition in Transition published!

Together with Verian, the IDPF evaluated the first Citizens' Assembly of the German Bundestag on the topic of "Nutrition in Transition". The evaluation report documents that the Citizens' Assembly on Nutrition provided sufficient answers to the questions formulated by the Bundestag and thus successfully and completely fulfilled its task. The implementation of the Citizens' Assembly itself (participation management, moderation, involvement of expertise, quality of dialogue) is also rated positively overall, although potential for improvement is seen in voting procedures and the ratio of digital and face-to-face meetings, among other things. You can find the BUW press release and the Bundestag press release here. You can access the entire report on the Bundestag website .

Publications in "dms- der moderne staat"

The IDPF has published the current issue of "dms- der moderne staat- Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management" with a focus on democracy innovations, representation and political change.

Nora Freier, Volker Mittendorf and Detlef Sack wrote the introduction to the thematic focus: Democracy Innovations, Representation and Political Change.

Hans J. Lietzmann published an essay on the emergence of deliberative politics in representation.

Volker Mittendorf, Joel Müller, Detlef Sack and Vanessa Warwick published the article "Direktdemokratisches Layering mit sozialer Schlagseite? Privatisation and municipalisation in petitions and decisions".

You can find the entire journal in open access here.

Current IDPF projects

Citizens' Councils database

The Citizens' Councils database records and collects loose-based, deliberative citizens' participation processes carried out in Germany from 1972 to the present day. The individual citizens' assemblies are recorded and categorised according to topic, type of procedure, institutional embedding and other categories. The database entries systematically bring together cases from other databases (e.g. those of the OECD), supplemented by our own scientifically based research, whose cases are adopted according to the structure. In line with a citizen science approach, once the database has been activated, citizens can independently edit and add entries, which will be included in the database after being reviewed by the IDPF in cooperation with practice partners.

The Citizens' Councils database thus provides research infrastructure and creates a valuable approach for comparative policy research in the field of citizen participation. For practitioners, it offers a comprehensive overview of best practice examples.

Click here to go directly to the Citizens' Councils database.

BE:ST

BE:ST stands for "Citizen Energy: Structural Strengthening & Participation". The social and economic research project is dedicated to the basic conditions for an effective citizen energy transition in Lusatia and the Rhenish mining area. You can find more information about BE:ST here.

Artificial intelligence and citizens' councils

The Artificial Intelligence and Citizens' Councils (KIB) project is investigating the possible applications of digital and AI tools in the context of deliberative processes. The project will develop an LLM-based AI tool (expert system) and test it in a citizens' assembly.

The project will address the following questions

1. for which known deficits of citizens' councils and citizen science can AI show a particular solution potential, for example in terms of accessibility, inclusion and knowledge transfer?

2. what limitations, particularly in the areas of reliability, impartiality, digital competences and possible influence on users, are evident when using AI and how can they be addressed so that social participation processes are meaningfully expanded and effectively enriched by the technological possibilities of AI?

Further information on KIB can be found here or on the website of the Integrated Research Cluster.