Democratic impact moves past policy outcomes and looks at democracy itself. Here, the question is not only whether citizens influenced policy, but whether the process strengthened trust, legitimacy, fairness, and people’s sense that public decisions are made in a responsive and respectful way.
Lessons from research
In this video, Anne Eichholtzer, researcher at the University of Groningen, walks us through what democratic impact actually looks like. She shares findings from research studying a waste assembly in Groningen and a housing assembly in the province of Drenthe, looking at both active participants and the wider population. The focus: how citizen assemblies affect the relationship between citizens and government.
Democratic impact: key insights
Democratic impact is about how participation affects trust, legitimacy, and the relationship between citizens and institutions.
Democratic impact is about how participation affects trust, legitimacy, and the relationship between citizens and institutions.
It asks questions like:
- Do people feel heard and taken seriously?
- Do they better understand how decisions are made?
- Does participation strengthen trust in public institutions?
According to the OECD (2020, Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions), well-designed participation can:
- Increase perceived legitimacy of decisions
- Strengthen mutual understanding between citizens and policymakers
- Improve the quality of public debate
Residents experienced closer relationships with local authorities through repeated interaction and dialogue. Trust developed over time because citizens could see how their perspectives were acknowledged and discussed, even when constraints limited what could be realised.
Attention, attention!
Importantly, democratic impact can occur even if not all recommendations are implemented—as long as the process is fair, transparent, and respectful.
How a decision gets made matters just as much as the outcome.