Gesine Schwan, Laura Gerards Iglesias and Tara Ella Grimm analyse in "Organised interests and the common good" the deficits of citizen participation to date and argue in favour of strengthening representative democracy through Multi-stakeholder participation. This format brings together politics/administration, business, trade unions and organised civil society in moderated negotiation processes in order to develop consensus-oriented solutions to complex issues.
The following serve as a central practical example Municipal development councils - since its introduction in 10 municipalities successfully trialled (five in eastern Germany and five in western Germany) - which addressed local challenges such as healthcare, urban development and climate adaptation. They achieve a high level of approval among the participants and have often led to unanimously agreed and implemented strategies.
The authors recommend strengthening civil society organisations in a targeted manner, expanding multi-stakeholder formats at municipal level and also National development councils in order to constructively address polarising issues such as migration or tax justice and increase the output legitimacy of democracy.