The decreasing political trust of citizens in the political order, the rise of fake news and conspiracy undermining political institutions and inequalities in political representation are key challenges to the liberal script. In order to address these challenges, citizen assemblies (“Bürgerräte”) have been introduced that bring together randomly selected citizens to deliberate about political topics. Points of view are exchanged, solutions are proposed and recommendations to politicians are formulated. Randomly drawn citizen assemblies tend to be more representative of the population than elected representatives because they are selected from a broader group of citizens and thus bring a greater diversity of opinions and perspectives.

They can also help reduce the sense of political elitism and increase citizen confidence in political decision-making while reducing the vulnerability to fake news and conspiracy theories. Bundestag President Bas for instance sees citizen assemblies as “a way to restore confidence in politics and revitalize democracy”.1 Even though citizen assemblies are becoming ever more popular, we have no empirical evidence so far on whether they can really help to restore political trust and reduce inequalities in political participation.

In this research project, we therefore seek to answer two research questions:

1. Which citizens participate in citizen assemblies and which strategies could be employed to increase the likelihood that they participate?

2. What is the effect of participating in a citizen assembly on political trust and the vulnerability to conspiracy theories and fake news?

The proposed project importantly contributes to the research agenda of SCRIPTS more generally and to RU Allocation and RU Orders more specifically. First, the proposed project addresses a key challenge that we address in RU Allocation, namely the increasing levels of political inequalities in Western democracies. A large body of research has shown that there are major inequalities in political representation and political participation as richer, more affluent groups are much better able to voice their concerns than disadvantaged groups (e.g. Bartels 2008; Giger et al. 2012; Traber et al. 2022). This project importantly contributes to RU Allocation by shedding light on whether citizen assemblies can reduce political inequalities by mobilizing otherwise marginalized groups of citizens. By enabling direct citizen participation and voice, citizens' councils can help ensure that the needs and concerns of disadvantaged groups, who are often neglected by traditional political institutions and decision-makers, are heard and addressed. This can help address inequities related to race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other factors. Citizen assemblies can therefore importantly help to reduce inequalities in political participation by including the voices and perspectives of marginalized and disadvantaged groups in policy-making processes. Second, the project also makes an important contribution to RU Orders as political trust is a crucial component of any healthy democracy. It refers to the belief that political institutions and leaders are acting in the best interests of the public and are capable of effectively governing. Declining political trust can endanger democracy, including the erosion of public faith in government, the rise of extremism and populism, and the beliefs in conspiracy theories and fake news. Addressing the issue of declining political trust is crucial for preserving and strengthening democratic systems. Citizen assemblies have been established as a means to overcome this key challenge to the liberal script. Citizen assemblies give citizens the opportunity to voice their views and needs directly to political decision-makers, rather than merely expressing them through elections. Citizen assemblies can thereby help increase citizens' trust in political institutions by making them feel that their voices are heard and that their opinions and needs are taken into account. This can help maintain and promote a healthy democracy