Prof. Paulina Pospieszna and Magni Szymaniak-Arnesen, in collaboration with Hungarian scholars Dr Dávid Oross and Prof. Gabriella Kiss (Institute for Political Science, Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest), have published a new article in Local Government Studies titled: “Diverse roles and perceptions of public officials and NGOs in local citizens’ assemblies – A comparative analysis of the cases of Poland and Hungary” (2025).
The article explores local climate-related citizens’ assemblies held in Poznań and Budapest, focusing on how public officials and civil society organisations perceived their design, implementation, and outcomes. Based on in-depth interviews, the study finds that the degree of involvement in agenda-setting significantly affects how actors evaluate citizens’ assemblies. Civil society actors expressed greater support for the process and its outcomes—especially when they had early and active input—whereas public officials often approached the recommendations with caution, particularly when they perceived them as challenging their authority.
This publication makes an important contribution to the study of deliberative democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, a region still underrepresented in global research on democratic innovations.
The article is available in open access here.
