The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published the results of its EU Citizen Engagement Impact Survey, conducted across 20 countries. The findings are unambiguous: 97% of the 105 public administrations that participated in citizen engagement processes say they would do it again. The benefits cited include better policy quality, greater responsiveness to community needs, and stronger democratic legitimacy.
The study also documents a deeper effect: participatory processes transform institutions from within. Public servants who take part develop a greater appreciation for citizen engagement and recognise its value as a governance tool. And when citizens feel they have a genuine say, their trust in institutions rises, a rare and valuable outcome at a time of widespread disillusionment.
A survey by Sciences Po and the Verian institute (DeCoDe: Citizen Deliberation and Trust in Democratic Politics), conducted among a representative sample of 2,500 people in France, paints a striking picture. Only 13% of respondents trust politics, yet 80% remain committed to a democratic system. What French citizens reject is not democracy itself, but what researchers call “electocracy” government by elected elites who are not bound by the preferences of those who voted for them.
Against this backdrop, 67% of respondents consider it a good thing for citizens to participate in citizens’ assemblies, and 53% support replacing the Senate with a sortition-based assembly. The reasons given? The impartiality of randomly selected citizens (who “are not seeking re-election”), their legitimacy as “ordinary people”, and distrust of professional politicians.
French respondents favour a model of “radical democracy”: citizens set the agenda for assemblies through petitions, and recommendations are put to a referendum. A model that preserves popular sovereignty while making it more direct.
Both studies point to the same conclusion: democratic innovations (citizens’ assemblies, deliberation, sortition…) are no longer marginal experiments. They produce measurable outcomes and respond to a genuine social demand.
The key condition for success? A sincere political commitment to following up on citizens’ recommendations. As the JRC underlines, without tangible follow-through, the trust gained can quickly erode.
