I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University St. Gallen specializing in the fields of political communication, comparative politics, and participatory institutions. I completed my dissertation in June 2023 as part of the project “A non-populist theory of direct democracy”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at the University of Geneva.
The project involved piloting a novel process of political participation in Switzerland called the Citizens’ Initiative Review, where a small panel of randomly selected citizens informs fellow voters about an upcoming popular vote with a summary statement.
The first iteration of "Demoscan" took place in the municipality of Sion in the south-west of Switzerland (Canton of Valais) in fall 2019. The second pilot took place on two weekends in September 2021 at the cantonal level in Geneva.