"Citizens' Assembly 2025": research into new forms of democracy
The University of Zurich and the University of Geneva announce the launch of the groundbreaking "Citizens' Assembly 2025" research project.
Media release
To what extent are Citizens' Assemblies suitable for conducting important social debates and counteracting the increasing hardening of political positions? To get to the bottom of this question, a national Citizens' Assembly 2025 will take place between November 2024 and March 2025. It will involve 100 randomly selected residents from all over Switzerland.
The Citizens' Assembly aims to reflect the diversity of the Swiss population as well as possible and ensure that people with very different opinions are included. To this end, the participants will be randomly selected in a two-stage process. Over the next few days, 22,000 people randomly selected from the Federal Statistical Office's sample frame will receive an invitation to take part in the Citizens' Assembly. In June, 100 participants will be drawn from all the registrations.
Switzerland is facing urgent and sometimes deadlocked political challenges. The Citizens' Assembly will address one of these issues. In cooperation with the political parties, a pre-selection of topics has been made: securing the energy supply, financing old-age provision, Switzerland's neutrality policy, rising healthcare costs and the relationship between Switzerland and Europe. Every person invited has the opportunity to express their views on these topics in a survey. The Citizens' Assembly discusses the topic favoured by the majority.
Support for politics
"We are not pursuing a substantive or political agenda, but are interested in scientifically investigating the format of a Citizens' Assembly in Switzerland," explains Prof Dr Daniel Kübler, co-initiator of the project at the University of Zurich, adding: "We are interested in how an informed cross-section of the population positions itself on concrete political solutions." A Citizens' Assembly is a promising format for conducting a substantive and respectful debate on a controversial or politically deadlocked topic.
Prof Dr Nenad Stojanović, co-initiator at the University of Geneva, explains: "The Citizens' Assembly provides a differentiated opinion on specific political challenges. This enables politicians to draw on a wide range of views and proposed solutions and promotes well-founded decision-making."
At the end of the process, the members of the Citizens' Assembly draw up a final document in which they summarise the most important arguments, findings and recommendations on the topic under discussion. The document can serve as a basis for decision-making for those with political responsibility and contribute to a public debate. The research project aims to analyse the extent to which this final document affects the opinions of people who did not participate in the Citizens' Assembly.
