Citizens' frustration: politics and people drift apart!

Citizens' frustration: politics and people drift apart!

In times when the distance between citizens and politicians increases, the need for understandable communication and active citizen participation is becoming increasingly important. The Nordkurier The growing cleavement between people and the political decision-making. The problems are clearly shown in the current debate in the district council in Ludwigslust-Parchim, where citizens take part in public meetings, but are not allowed to ask questions about topics that are already on the agenda. This regulation introduced by those responsible to protect the independence of local politicians is often perceived as incomprehensible and frustrating.

The lack of understanding of citizens is growing, especially when it comes to complex topics such as the construction of wind turbines. Although citizens have the opportunity to ask questions, according to the municipal constitution, they are denied if their concerns are already on the agenda. This situation leads to a loss of trust in politics, which continues to be reinforced by internal disputes and examples from politics. A politician was criticized because she deals with animal protection issues while visiting zoological gardens, which indicates a mismatch between public interest and political action.

Citizen participation as an opportunity

Citizen participation is now considered a key to improving political understanding. The bpb emphasizes that this form of participation is taken seriously in many regions, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate. There, the citizens were included in the local and administrative reform at an early stage in order to develop future political structures together. The state parliament in Rhineland-Palatinate decided in 2008 to include citizens in a two-stage procedure. This shows how important it is to integrate citizens' opinions into reform processes and not only see them as a fellow runner, but as a co -designer.

The successes of this initiative are remarkable: At the regional conferences and citizens' congresses, many ideas and suggestions were collected by the citizens. The result of these efforts was recorded in a "citizens' report". Over 80% of the citizens surveyed support citizen participation and 60% are informed about the reform - a sign of the increased interest of the population in political participation.

In Europe strengthen dialogue

A similar exchange also takes place at European level. The Bertelsmann Foundation initiated an event in Brussels entitled "A New Chapter for Participatory Democracy: Paving the Way for the Future". The aim of this event was to strengthen democracy within the EU and to actively involve citizens in the political process. Politicians from various European regions discussed the challenges and the importance of making politics more understandable and accessible.

These discussions not only illustrate the need for political rethinking with regard to citizen communication, but also that the dialogue between politics and citizens must be promoted more intensively. The variety of examples described shows that it is time to find new ways of communication. By hearing and taking it seriously, trust in politics can be strengthened in the long term.