Vincent Jacquet, the political scientist who scrutinises citizens' assemblies

What are the solutions to the crisis of the democratic system? Are citizens' assemblies effective in reducing the crisis? Is citizen participation really taken into account in political decisions? Vincent Jacquet, Doctor of Political and Social Sciences and member of the TRANSITIONS Institute, is interested in all these questions. He has just obtained a prestigious mandate as a qualified researcher from the FNRS to enable him to continue his "Citizen Impact" research. What is the objective? To analyze the impact of citizen panels on public action in European countries, with a particular focus on environmental and health policies.

"Today, we are witnessing a crisis in democracy, with a major breakdown in trust between citizens and political representatives, and even institutions. Various solutions are being developed to deal with this crisis. One of them is citizen participation, i.e. the involvement of citizens in the government of the city, beyond the electoral process. For some years now, these mechanisms of participatory and deliberative democracy have been developing in many countries, particularly in Europe," explains Vincent Jacquet. "But what is their impact on political decisions? Do they transform power relations? Are they part of a solution to the crisis of democracy?

To answer these questions, Vincent Jacquet first looks at the workings of various citizens' assemblies in Europe. "For example, we recently observed all the meetings of the Air-Climate citizens' panel set up by the Walloon Region, in which citizens selected by lot take part in order to reflect on the actions to be taken to combat global warming. The researcher will then look at the political impact of this type of structure. "Now that this experiment is over, we will examine whether this citizen panel really has an impact on political decision-making and whether this type of approach can be a solution to the democratic crisis.