Citizens' Assemblies Strengthen Parliaments

The Coordination Unit for Citizens' Assemblies in the German parliament is to be disbanded. President of the German Parliament, Julia Klöckner, has justified this decision by arguing that citizens' assemblies diminish the power of parliament. However, research at the Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) leads us to a different conclusion: citizens’ assemblies can provide crucial orientation precisely where political decision-making processes have become bogged down by seemingly insurmountable contradictions.