Citizen Assemblies in Europe: window dressing or transformative instruments?

Introduction

To improve and even to save contemporary democracies under huge pressure and attack, a remedy has been attracting a large amount of attention: the strengthening of ordinary citizens’ opportunities to deliberate on and directly participate in politics.

Citizens' Assemblies

In this regard, many citizens’ assemblies (CAs) have been implemented by public authorities, especially since the 2010s. Convened through random selection, these assemblies are diversified groups of citizens that deliberate on a public problem and make policy recommendations.

Research Context

Existing research provides detailed descriptions of the internal dynamics of CAs and shows that most citizens are able to deliberate on complex issues. Nevertheless, they fail to identify and explain their more external impacts.

Research Question

In the context of the growing appeal for such mechanisms, CITIZEN_IMPACT asks the fundamental question: are CAs mere window dressing or do they lead to transformations in the functioning of the political system?

Theoretical Framework

It radically changes the dominant perspective on CAs by taking stock of several decades of research on policy studies, governance, and institutional dynamics. It offers a systematic account of whether, how, and why CAs matter in contemporary European countries by elaborating a new multidimensional conceptualization of their impact:

1. Direct impact on policies
2. Indirect impact on civil society
3. Discursive impact on the public sphere

Research Design

To address these three dimensions, the research design combines different methods to compare macro national trends (frame analysis of the media, survey with civil society organizations) and to disentangle complex processes (process tracing, interviews).

Conclusion

Hence, CITIZEN_IMPACT provides a new horizon to tackle, both in the scientific community and the broader society, the role and contribution of such participatory and deliberative procedures in contemporary representative democracies.