Whom to trust? The determinants of support for citizen assemblies in Europe

Europe has been "catching the deliberative wave" in the last years. Participatory events are organized and initiated by governments across Europe, with prominent examples in France, Ireland, and the UK. In both the academic and the public discourse, there are particularly two hopes connected to the role that citizens' assemblies can play: First, they are expected to increase the legitimacy of policy-making among the general public. This mirrors a more general expectation regarding increased participatory opportunities for citizens. Second, assemblies are expected to actually recommend and potentially advance existing policies. Many actors might see participatory processes as a shortcut to achieving certain policy goals, thus their support is driven by instrumental considerations. While research so far provides some insights into the procedural and instrumental nature of citizens' democratic process preferences, it remains unclear to what extent such considerations are driven by social and institutional trust. Given that deliberative democracy shifts political power from elected representatives to a randomly selected group of citizens, which will be advised by policy-specific experts, it is important to understand how social and institutional trust drives support for this institutional innovation. Climate change and the energy transition represent a crucial policy field, which has seen many implemented citizen assemblies on the local, regional, and national level in Europe. Citizen involvement in decision-making on the energy transition is broadly demanded from policy-makers, activists, supranational institutions and academics. Activist groups call for citizen assemblies on climate and advocate for participatory democracy. And new concepts such as "energy citizenship" emerging in the political debate entail political engagement and participation beyond passive consumerism. Based on this policy field, the goal of this study is to explore the role of social and institutional trust for the support of participatory decision-making among European citizens. The analysis is based on an original survey dataset of more than 9,000 respondents from 16 EU countries. Contrary to previous findings, we find no support for the assumption that diminishing trust in political elites drives support for citizen assemblies. Next to instrumental considerations, main drivers of support for citizen assemblies are trust in fellow citizens and experts to make decisions on the energy transition. The results substantiate the crucial role of social cohesion for a functioning democracy and adoption of innovative participatory elements.