2023-04-27 09:17:47
For the “International Day of Education” on January 24, 2022, the Citizens’ Council for Education and Learning developed an immediate program to improve the German education system
Image: obs
When, if not now, is the time for citizens’ councils? There are plenty of issues and problems. A guest post.
In the debate on climate policy, citizens’ councils are being brought up, including by representatives of the “last generation”, as a way of increasing citizen participation in environmental policy decisions. Such councils exist in Belgium, France and Ireland. In Germany, too, civil society organizations have organized citizens’ councils on “Germany’s role in the world” and on climate policy. And yet citizens’ councils are hardly known to the general public. The German Bundestag plans to set up the first citizens’ council it has commissioned in May. At the moment, the parliamentary groups are discussing which topic this citizens’ council should deal with.
regain confidence in democracy
It is therefore high time to discuss this more broadly. In such citizens’ councils, conferences or assemblies, citizens selected by lot and representing social reality develop solutions to political problems. The goal is to regain lost trust in representative democracy. Because the discourse between political elites and citizens that is necessary for a representative democracy hardly takes place anymore. But how are the elected representatives supposed to make political decisions in the interest of the common good if they don’t deal with the arguments and concerns of citizens from all social classes?
#Christine #Landfried #advocates #introduction #citizen #councils