Blog series of the Citizen’s Action for Democracy project (CitiDem)

Can citizens’ assemblies save democracy?

Many believe liberal, representative democracy is in serious danger. A core challenge is that of populist leader and parties, and other political and economic forces (think of Big Tech) who appear to be little inclined to play according to the democratic rules of the game. In their politics, they often contribute to polarising societies and excluding specific minority groups. In this difficult time for democracy – mala tempora currunt, can citizens’ assemblies play an effective role in stemming the authoritarian tide, and help getting democracies back on track?

Citizens’ assemblies consist of democratic experiments in which a small sample of the larger citizenry comes together for a shorter period of time (for instance, a couple of days or weekends) to discuss specific topics or themes together, such as climate change, euthanasia, AI, or abortion. By now, such democratic experiments have been used in many different societies and for very diverse purposes. And it has been even tried on the European level, in the Conference on the Future of Europe.

In the run-up to this Conference, the CTOE coalition of civil society organisations adopted a Manifesto for a European Citizens’ Assembly and has carried on publicly developing a Blue Print for a Permanent Citizens’ Assembly in Europe. In the wake of this, the experimental project the Democratic Odyssey was started.

Citizens’ assemblies are clearly a great promise for many, but the question of how assemblies may in practice bolster democracy is however not easily answered. The extent to which such assemblies really reinforce democracy and help countering the erosion of democracy is not necessarily self-evident or straightforward. It is this question – how do citizens’ assemblies contribute to reinforce democracy in the face of major challenges? – we want to address in the first Webinar of our project Citizens’ Action for Democracy or in short, CitiDem.

Citizens’ assemblies are promising, but do not always have clear democratic results. One problem with assemblies may be simply that citizens’ assemblies are often not very widely known or discussed in wider society, so a lot of other citizens are not aware these assemblies are happening, or citizens do not have information about their final results. If democracy is about the participation of all, how can the deliberation of only a few citizens meaningfully strengthen democracy? Or, even when assemblies are known by the larger citizenry, assemblies may be perceived as too technical or even as technocratic exercises (especially when set up by governments or state institutions) and in this way might come across as not so democratic at all.

But there are surely other ways of seeing and understanding citizens’ assemblies. One way is to take assemblies as important opportunities to give a voice to citizens (or also simply residents), to return in a way to an idea of citizens connecting to each other, discussing publicly amongst members of the same society about things that matter to the democratic community. In this sense, citizens’ assemblies might help recreate community ties, in a context in groups in society and individuals seem to be increasingly disconnected from each other. Assemblies may help – even if in smaller steps – combat what is sometimes called a “society of individuals”. This may be particularly powerful on the local level.
Most citizens’ assemblies are about either pragmatic problems (such as how to implement sustainability policies or how to reform the electoral system) or complex ethical matters (such as euthanasia or abortion).

But the actual future of democracy, and how citizens and others would understand a better functioning democracy, these questions are not very frequently taken up.

Citizens’ assemblies could also be a way of discussion one of the most pressing issues of our times: in what kind of democracy or other political regime do we want to live? Citizens’ assemblies could be a participatory way of clarifying how people relate to democracy, and how they understand when a democracy works well or not. When democracy needs to deal with pressing issues – such as abortion, migration policy, or the reform of agriculture – what would be the most effective and agreeable democratic means?

Citizens’ assemblies could hence be also about democracy as the main topic.

And rather than deciding on political matters, citizens’ assemblies could help kick start a wider societal debate about the future of democracy. This could involve issues such as, to what democratic standards should political parties respond in their political activities, which kind of positions/statements of political parties are admissible in a democratic public sphere and which not? What forms should regulation of AI and social media take so as to safeguard open, fact-based, and truthful public debate? Or, also, how should complex, sensitive topics such as abortion, migration, or climate change best be dealt with in a democratic way?

Citidem will address such questions of democracy and citizen empowerment in its first webinar, but also put into practice real assemblies, such as the first CitiDem transnational assembly, organized by Eumans, on 7-8 March, 2025, in Brussels. In this assembly, the complex topic of abortion will be addressed from the perspective of democracy: how can our societies decide together on how to go best forward with abortion? This assembly’s main question is: “how we can effectively advocate for citizens’ rights through democratic innovation” and will use the “case of abortion rights … as a starting point for broader discussions”.

Paul Blokker