Citizens in Foreign Policy

On 24 September 2024, Christian Opitz presented his draft paper “Vom Bürgerrat zur Gesellschaft: Wie deliberative Bürgerbeteiligung politisches Vertrauen generalisieren kann [From Citizens’ Council to Society: How Deliberative Citizen Participation Can Generalize Political Trust ]” (working title) at the 29th Academic Convention of the German Political Science Association. This year’s Convention was held at the University of Göttingen.

In his paper, Christian critically examines the widespread assumption that the expansion of deliberative citizen participation, which is increasingly employed at the national level on an ad hoc basis, could enhance political trust. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, Christian provides a theoretical exploration of how the political trust that participants build through interaction-based participation processes could potentially diffuse throughout society. The paper discusses various ways for this generalisation of trust and highlights their limitations.

Christian expresses his gratitude to the discussant, Volker Best (MLU, Halle-Wittenberg), for his insightful and thorough feedback. He would also like to extend his thanks to the fellow panellists Mahir Tokatli, Danny Schindler, Peggy Matauschek, and Denise Al-Gaddooa, as well as to everyone in the audience, for an engaging session.