'Angry' citizens often experience a lack of trust in politics and democracy. Governments are doing everything they can to involve this group in democracy again with referendums and participatory budgets. Research by Rosa Kindt shows that this is having an effect: these meetings provide satisfaction and a feeling of being heard, especially among right-wing populist citizens. Kindt's PhD defence will take place on 1 April at Radboud University.
In the public debate, there is often talk of angry, populist citizens who feel that they are not being listened to, as political scientist Rosa Kindt points out: 'We often hear about groups that want to take power back from the elite, for the people. But of course these are rather empty concepts. What kind of power do they want, and for which people? After all, a left-wing populist citizen may have a very different idea of which 'people' are not being heard than a right-wing populist citizen.
Kindt's research shows that right-wing populists in any case make a strict distinction between 'ethnic Dutch' and everyone else, while on the left side of the spectrum there is hardly any distinction between who does and does not belong to 'the people'. 'These are quite radical differences. I was curious to see if this has consequences for how these groups think about democratic innovations. Because if you have a very narrow definition of the people, how do you feel about a meeting where people also have a role that doesn't meet that definition?'
Legitimacy
More and more local governments are experimenting with these kinds of innovations, such as participatory budgets in which citizens can decide how (part of) the municipal budget is spent, or referendums. The goal of these initiatives is to increase trust in democracy by putting citizens at the centre of the decision-making process. But is that really how (populist) citizens experience it?
The surprising answer (also for Kindt): yes. 'Citizens were not only happy to participate in these meetings, but almost all of them indicated that they appreciated the outcome and saw it as a good reflection of what is going on in society. For her research, Kindt spoke with participants in participatory budgets in Duiven, Maastricht and Amsterdam. She conducted interviews and distributed questionnaires to a wide range of citizens, both populist and non-populist, left-wing and right-wing.
Being heard
The right-wing populist group, which had indicated beforehand that it was concerned that many non-ethnic Dutch people might attend the meeting, resulting in a non-representative representation, also appeared to have a positive experience. Kindt: 'They greatly appreciate the opportunity to share their opinions with other citizens, where there is room for every story. The fact that they are being listened to leads to a positive outcome, especially for this group.' According to Kindt, this is an important starting point for future citizens' initiatives: it suggests that the mistrust of democracy is mainly rooted in the feeling of not being heard.
Although many people are increasingly fearful of populist sentiments, Kindt warns that it is important not to tar all populists with the same brush. The survey shows that many populist citizens want democracy to better represent the people, with the people being understood to be a very broad group. These populist citizens can therefore give democracy a boost by ensuring that citizens play a greater role in the public debate. Local politics has a big task ahead of it: 'If you really want to do something with those angry citizens, you have to keep involving them in citizens' initiatives. They too will then feel more connected to our democracy.'
