Democracy in Transformation
Citizens-led solutions to empower democratic decision-making for complex problem solving
As a society, we need to tackle the climate and ecological crisis. The “Democracy in transformation” working group of Nova Helvetia aims to find out how we can solve these complex problems that require political efficiency by implementing alternative forms of a society-led democracy. We follow the call for implementing a Citizen Assembly to tackle the systemic issues and find solutions that are able to be carried by the entire society. We believe that organisations active in this field must be aware of each other's activities, so that synergies can develop and real change in the political system becomes possible. In addition to the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, we want to establish a fourth power, the Consultative, and thus strengthen the democratic system. We plan to launch a Citizen Assembly on the national level in May 2021.
Our prototype
We want to implement discussion rounds based on the experiences of the Nova Helvetia journey with different stakeholders from politics, activism, economy, institutionalized NGOs and scientists, resp. experts from abroad on citizen assemblies. We want to find a common ground on how a citizen assembly could look like in Switzerland and build upon this experiences a first prototype to start a citizen assembly in May 2021.
With this prototype we will better understand how to best bring relevant actors together to discuss uncomfortable truths about the failures of our current political system, while at the same time trying to find a way forward for efficient testing and implementation of new solutions. If this first prototype has worked well, we plan to further develop the design of a platform and offer further workshops to address other political issues and function as a network node that brings political actors/movements together.
Outputs
Development of a new framework for webinars and workshops around how Citizen Assemblies have to be designed and implemented to ensure a neutral and transparent process
Translating of the documents into all Swiss languages and English
Hold talks and online workshops on Citizen Assemblies
Implementation of a 2-day Future Lab at the Agriculture and Youth Conference “Breathing with the Climate Crisis – ecologically – socially – spiritually” with over 100 participants joining
Build connections with other democracy movements
Promote the workshops as well as the 4 videos explaining Citizen Assemblies and activities in social media
Outcomes
The efforts have raised awareness as well in the political environment and led to several exchanges between the working group “Citizens Democracy” and politicians as well as NGOs.
The group keeps on working on bringing the concept of Citizen Assemblies closer to citizens, politicians and NGOs on local, cantonal and national level.
