Zebralog - Online Dialogue on Social Market Economy

Online Dialogue on Social Market Economy

According to a survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation, about 73 percent of the German citizens state that the distribution of income and capital is unjust. This outcome raises some questions: How social can the social market economy be considered to be if the citizens experience it as beeing unsocial in their daily lives? What has to change to economy being perceived as being just again?

A combined iniative by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation and the Ludwig-Erhard-Foundation aimed at involving citizens themselves in answering these questions: The idea was to give normal citizens the possibility to elaborate their own concept for social market economy. The concept should be presented to all members of the German Parliament and of the German Landtage. From January till April 2008 about 350 incidentally chosen participants debated their “Civic Programme for a Social Market Economy” – heart of this process was a two-month online-working-phase. Zebralog developed a special web-platform to meet the requirements of this complex and precise discussion.

The Online-Dialogue was a huge success: During the online-working-phase the participants posted 42,788 contributions. In this two month of intense debate the participants formulated 57 so called “ProgrammBausteine” (programme modules) – solution-proposals for several problems from different political subjects. A later representative survey showed that the programme modules earned a great acceptance in the wider public as well.

On the occasion of the 60th birthday of social market economy the results where presented to politicians and stakeholders for the first time.

Already a few weeks before the actual start the participants had time to explore the online-platform and to inform themselves about social market economy. Starting point to the actual working phase was a real life meeting in Berlin. The participants joined eight boards, concerning the topics labour, education, demographics, finances, globalisation, innovation, social politics and environment. Each board formulated specific problem fields and first approaches for solutions. This work was the source for the upcoming online-phase: Here the citizens elaborated their first proposals for the final programme modules.

Each module consisted of a key thesis and a further description, how the proposals should be carried out. So called citizen editors were responsible for one module each. They summarized the comments made by their fellow participants and created the final text. The citizens worked on their central demands to government in three phases. At the end of each phase they voted on which module should be part of the final programme.

Moderators from Zebralog accompanied the discussion process. They took care of a fair and balanced dialogue, where each participant had the same chance to state his or her ideas for the civic programme. Furthermore the moderators helped with technical questions. Experts for the different topics supported the eight boards as well.

In April 2008 a final vote on the programme was carried out in Bonn, in the halls of the former German Bundestag. But that was not the end of the participants´ work, neither of the work of the foundations and Zebralog. Now it was the time to distribute the programme to the political institutions concerned and to get media attention.

2.500 copies of the programme were sent to members of German parliament and of the German Landtage. The participants themselves took care of the regional press, e.g. they informed the editors of their local newspapers.

The organisers also wanted to know whether the programme gained support from the general public or not. So the Bertelsmann Foundation carried out a representative survey with a sample of 2.000 citizens. The majority supported the claims made by the participants of the BürgerForum. These results were presented on the event “Civic Forum in Dialogue”. At this event participants got into contact with stakeholders from politics and economy and could discuss their programme. Delegations also presented the final concept to the political parties presented in the German Bundestag and to the German Ministry of Finance. The Board on environment got the possibility to talk to the German Minister of Environment, Sigmar Gabriel. Furthermore the participants organized more than 60 meetings and events with political stakeholders, media and interested civilians.

More than a year after the launch of the BürgerForum Soziale Marktwirtschaft a lot of participants are still very active and motivated to continue with their work. Therefore the organizers and the participants try to find out how the work can be carried on.

In the meantime Zebralog set up a follow up project, again organized by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Hans Nixdorf Foundation: The BürgerForum Europa, a civic online-dialogue about the European Union.