A Blueprint for Reforming Civic Participation, from the Grassroots to the EU
ELECTIONS ALONE NO LONGER WORK. WHAT WE NEED IS A REVOLUTION IN CIVIC PARTICIPATION TOOLS, FROM EUROPE DOWN TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
Fewer and fewer people believe that casting a ballot every once in a while truly allows them to make a meaningful contribution to the governance of public affairs. At the same time, the political class alone is no longer able to provide adequate diagnoses for the complexity of the contemporary world, nor to guarantee decisions that serve the collective interest.
A democracy that lives only during elections risks becoming an intermittent democracy. When citizens are called upon to express themselves only occasionally, the promise of popular sovereignty weakens, and politics risks appearing increasingly distant from people’s everyday lives.
But resignation is not the only option. A new democracy is possible—one in which people can truly participate and contribute in an informed way to public decision-making, thanks to new forms of participation such as sortition-based citizens’ assemblies and the digital revolution.
In many cities and regions across Europe, there are already mechanisms in place that show how a more inclusive democracy—where citizens are given the opportunity to deliberate on complex issues—leads to wiser and more effective final decisions. It is also necessary to introduce mechanisms ensuring that institutions are accountable for responding to citizens’ deliberations, such as the obligation to justify any decision not to implement proposals emerging from citizens’ assemblies.
To address the current sense of powerlessness in democracies—which fuels anger and distrust among citizens—we must draw on the wealth of ideas and aspirations that people can express when given the right conditions.
In Europe, the time has come to invest in civic participation: renewing democracy is the only way to restore people’s trust in this form of government, at a time when nationalism and authoritarianism are on the rise.
For this reason, we propose a set of reforms of participatory tools aimed at enabling citizens to actively participate in and influence public life at all levels: from municipalities and regions to Member States and the European Union.
PART 2: TOOLS
Participatory democracy at all levels
Democratic participation cannot be limited to a single institutional level. People experience politics every day in their territories, cities, regions, states, and European institutions. Therefore, opportunities to participate in public decision-making must exist at all these levels.
Strengthening democracy means opening new spaces for participation throughout the entire institutional system, from the local to the European level. Participatory and deliberative democracy tools can improve the quality of public decisions, strengthen institutional accountability, and rebuild the link between citizens and politics.
For this reason, we propose a coherent set of civic participation and deliberation tools that can be adopted across different levels of governance—municipalities, regions, Member States, and the European Union—adapting them to different institutional contexts while maintaining shared principles of inclusion, transparency, and democratic accountability.
1. Sortition-based citizens’ assemblies
Deliberative democracy must complement representative democracy. We propose the institutionalization of randomly selected citizens’ assemblies, formally integrated into decision-making processes.
- At the municipal and regional level: citizens’ assemblies included in local and regional statutes.
- At the national level: citizens’ assemblies established by law, tasked with deliberating on strategic reforms and major public issues.
- At the European level: the creation of a permanent assembly of randomly selected citizens, tasked with deliberating on the Union’s major challenges and guiding its decision-making process.
These tools strengthen the legitimacy of decisions, reduce polarization, and promote informed and structured deliberation.
A crucial aspect is the institutional follow-up to citizens’ assemblies: legislative bodies must be required to respond to the proposals adopted, providing justification in each case for whether or not they choose to implement them.
In the ideal model—such as the experience of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly on constitutional reforms (2016–2018)—the assembly’s deliberations are submitted to a confirmatory referendum with binding outcomes.
2. Referendums without quorum and with digital signature collection
We propose introducing (or strengthening) referendums without quorum requirements at all levels. Quorums often encourage strategic abstention and boycotts, distorting democratic debate. Removing them increases citizen responsibility and fully recognizes the value of actual participation.
This principle should apply to:
- Municipal and regional referendums
- National referendums in Member States
- Pan-European referendums at EU level
In particular, the introduction of pan-European referendums without quorum would represent a decisive step toward a truly federal and participatory European democracy.
To ensure full accessibility, digital signature collection must be enabled through tools compliant with the eIDAS Regulation, guaranteeing authenticity, legal certainty, and full legal validity of signatures.
3. Popular initiatives with mandatory consideration
Citizens must be able not only to express opinions but also to concretely influence the political agenda. We propose that citizen initiatives—at municipal, regional, national, and European levels—be accompanied by an obligation for the competent assembly to debate and vote on them within six months.
If this deadline passes without a decision, the proposal should automatically be submitted to a referendum, possibly alongside a counter-proposal from the legislative body.
This mechanism would transform citizen initiatives from symbolic tools into real instruments of political and legislative direction.
As with referendums, digital signature collection should also be enabled for citizen initiatives.
4. Participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting must become a standard democratic practice. Citizens should be able to directly contribute to defining public spending priorities.
- At the local and regional level: as a structured and recurring process in municipalities
- At the national level: applied to specific funds or strategic programs
- At the European level: experimented with in the allocation of portions of EU funds or programs
Participatory budgeting strengthens transparency, civic education, and shared responsibility in managing public resources.
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