Jelle Turkenburg at NIG conference 2023
Many people are dissatisfied with the way our democracy works. Some think that we should strengthen the democratic processes by making better use of citizen participation. In the project Revitalized Democracy for Resilient Societies (REDRESS), we analyse how innovative combinations of deliberation (e.g. citizen assemblies) and voting (e.g. referendums) by ordinary citizens can be organised and what their effects are. We do this in collaboration with researchers from three other Dutch universities and a range of governmental and societal organisations. The project received funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the context of the National Science Agenda.Â
In Twente, we focus in particular on the effects that such hybrid democratic innovations have on citizens in real-life cases. Do citizens trust the local government more, if they are given the opportunity to decide themselves what a part of the budget is spent on? Does involving citizens in such new ways change their perception of how much politicians care about what the population wants? These are the kind of questions that Jelle Turkenburg focuses on in his PhD research project, which is supervised by Martin Rosema, Henk van der Kolk, Marcel Boogers and Barend van der Meulen. Jelle already presented some preliminary findings at several national and international conferences and expects to complete his thesis in 2025. Additionally, Martin does research about the way in which deliberation in referendum campaigns influences citizens’ vote choice. The aim of the project is not only to increase our insight with academic research, but also to provide useful advice for practitioners.
For more information about the REDRESS project, please visit the website of the consortium at www.redressproject.nl
Project Team
