Research frontier CAL-08

A calmer public debate

Also relevant to: Governance, Communication

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, public debate in Geneva is calm, structured and based on facts. Politicians no longer fight each other for the sake of it: they work together for the people who elected them. Political parties as such have disappeared completely. Neighbourhoods of a few thousand people make many decisions by consent, the way a good partnership does, and pass on what they cannot settle themselves. The media report what matters, including what goes well, and election posters no longer clutter the streets.

Even if Geneva seems to be a good place today, there is still plenty of negativity, sickness, ugliness and corruption here as well. Read a newspaper, or just go out and look on the streets and listen to people.Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 “2061”

Geneva today

Almost half of the Swiss population barely follows the news anymore

In 2025, 46.4% of the population were “news deprived”: they consume little or no news, and when they do, mainly via social media. They know less about political and social issues, have less trust in politics and the media, take part less in political life, and feel less connected to democratic society.

Source: Research Center for the Public Sphere and Society (fög), University of Zurich, Yearbook Quality of the Media 2025

The share of news-deprived people has grown steadily in recent years, while social media are becoming the main source of information for more and more people (same source).
Only 22.5% of people in Switzerland were willing to pay for online news in 2025, which leaves the news media dependent on advertising and on headlines that attract clicks (same source).

Where it is already done

Pictet, in Geneva, has been run since 1805 by a small group of managing partners, seven today, who meet in person three times a week. Each has one vote, yet they never vote: they discuss and weigh up the options until all of them are comfortable with the decision. To grow without slowing down, Pictet added 42 equity partners who act as a think tank, without voting rights.
Ostbelgien, the German-speaking Community of Belgium, has had a permanent Citizens’ Council of 24 residents drawn by lot since 2019. The council chooses topics, citizens’ panels drawn by lot deliberate on them with the help of experts, and the parliament must debate their recommendations twice within a year. Results include a total ban on smartphones in schools in 2025.
Taiwan uses an online platform where people vote on each other’s statements but cannot reply to them, which discourages trolling. The platform shows where groups agree, and participants then draft proposals that win support across the divides. On the regulation of Uber, pro- and anti-Uber camps converged on seven proposals with almost universal approval, which shaped the new rules. Its weakness: the government is not obliged to follow the results.

A Pattern Language

Related patterns from the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander and colleagues (1977), a classic of architecture and town planning.

12 Community of 7000: Alexander and his colleagues argue that individuals have no effective voice in communities much larger than about 5,000 to 10,000 people, and that a city should therefore be made up of self-governing communities of around 7,000, each with real decision-making power.

How far along

Research frontier Nobody knows yet how to do it. With 35 years ahead and the help of AI, this is where research is needed most.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

2027geneve2061.ch and similar platforms present public questions with facts, sources and options side by side, as a basis for structured debate.
2031Geneva tests a permanent citizens’ council drawn by lot, as in Ostbelgien, and uses online tools that highlight proposals supported across political divides.
2041Neighbourhoods of a few thousand residents make local decisions by consent, and election posters have disappeared from public space.
2051Cooperation across all perspectives has replaced the fight between political camps. Political parties have disappeared completely.
2061Public debate in Geneva is as calm as the city itself.

What moves it

CultureLawTechnologyResearch

Human needs it serves

To understand / be understoodConnectionRespect / Self-respectConnectionShared realityConnectionClarityMeaning

Open questions

How can a consent model that works for seven partners work for a whole city?
How can quality journalism be financed without relying on negative headlines to sell?
How can citizens be given real influence, so that the results of their deliberations are not simply ignored?

The author’s view

Most of the time, politicians fight against each other instead of caring for the people who elected them. This whole nonsense will be gone in 2061: you need two wings to fly, not just a right wing or a left wing.

In a group, energy is generated when everyone points in the same direction, like the magnetic domains in physics; when they do not, energy is low and conflicts emerge. This is why consent works so well in small groups, like the partners of the Geneva bank Pictet, and why a big city should be organised as smaller communities where everyone’s voice counts. One of the aims of geneve2061.ch is to help with more structured, fact-based discussions, instead of confusing, unstructured and belligerent political debates.

Journalism is a big part of the problem. The newspaper boxes in Geneva’s streets almost always put negativity forward, with carefully chosen negative words, supposedly to sell more newspapers. That should be forbidden. And the election posters that appear before every vote pollute public space even more than regular advertising.

Henrik Hillerström

Sources

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