Cohort on Deliberative Democracy & Citizens’ Assembly

Summary of Cohort Deliverables

Many people legitimately feel like they do not have a voice, nor power, in shaping the decisions affecting their lives. Trust in experts has been declining, misinformation and disinformation are prevalent, and political polarisation – partly driven by electoral incentives – weakens our cohesiveness as societies.

The cohort’s objective was to spread interest in the most successful innovation to counter these factors - Citizens’ Assemblies – where the Irish Government and European Commission experiences are at the forefront. Randomly selected everyday people get the chance to discuss issues with people different to themselves and work to find common ground solutions.

The focus was to help governments take a first step to adoption, with the goal of giving citizens the most visible and substantive role in public decisions.

National commitments we pursue:

1. informational workshops for elected representatives
2. driving adoption and distribution of guidelines in the OECD ‘Deliberative Wave’ report
3. conduct a national-level Citizens Assembly, as the cohort co-leads have successfully done.

‘Democracy’ seems all too frequently to be featured in news stories lamenting its decline, threat and erosion. So another key objective has been to highlight that ways exist to reverse that narrative, with the best defense being a good offence. Therefore we have worked to build support for more far-reaching international commitments:

1. the need for a ‘Marshall Plan for Democracy’: building new institutions for a new world.
2. make citizens around the world central to solving this problem by initiating a Global Citizens Assembly on Democracy.
3. a global “What Works” Centre for deliberative democracy

The activity of the cohort has seen an already growing field expand its reach. Across the world expertise and advice to operate this process can be connected with governments as needed.