Go Beyond Politics, is the demand that governments must form citizens’ assemblies and act on their recommendations.

But what is a citizens’ assembly? And why does Extinction Rebellion care about them? Isn’t XR concerned with blocking roads, handing out vegan cakes and camping in trees?

So many questions.

What are citizens’ assemblies?

Citizens’ assemblies (CAs) aim to give greater political power to citizens. Members of the public who accurately represent those living in the country make up the assembly. For example, there might be a mother of three from the east of the country, a teenaged university student from an ethnic minority group, and a retired police officer from the north.

High-quality information is presented over a series of meetings, covering every angle of an issue – and every side of the argument. The group deliberates and eventually delivers its recommendations to the government. There are several things that could happen next. For example: the government is legally bound to follow the recommendations; the government studies the outcomes to inform policy; the nation votes on the citizens’ assembly’s recommendations.

This process is a form of ‘deliberative democracy’. Most modern democracies limit citizens’ power to voting, but deliberative democracy requires citizens to deliberate, learn, and collaborate on decisions. It’s been gaining attention since the American professor Joseph M. Bessette wrote Deliberative Democracy: The Majority Principle in Republican Government in 1980. The beginnings of the practice of deliberative democracy, however, might be prehistoric. Athens founded the first recorded democracy around 600BCE, which favored decisions made by a group of randomly selected citizens over appointed representatives.

Why are citizens’ assemblies necessary?

A functioning democracy should enable voters to decide the direction in which their country moves. In theory, if citizens are not happy with this direction, they can vote for change. In practice, however, democratic governments favor solving short-term problems that ensure their popularity. Governments bury difficult, controversial, or long-term issues, such as the climate and ecological crisis.

Setting up a citizens’ assembly addresses this problem: if the pressure of a citizens’ assembly is larger than the pressure of a government’s supporters and funders, action on climate change might be possible. The open discussion of this huge and complicated issue can finally happen in a constructive and fair way.

How does a citizens’ assembly work?

Citizens’ assemblies must follow a carefully designed process. This is incredibly important, because an ineffective CA could create the impression that they’re a waste of time – it would probably be worse than not having one at all.

Each CA differs depending on topic, location, and participants, but this is the rough process:

1. Select a clear topic and question that is suitable for deliberation.

2. Establish a media budget large enough to ensure all people in the country are aware of and engaged with the CA – this puts pressure on the government to follow the CA’s final recommendations.

3. Select coordinators. This should be an independent organization with experience in organizing deliberative processes like citizens' assemblies.

4. Decide on the number of citizens necessary for a fair and representative CA.

5. Choose demographics for a representative CA. For example:

   • Age

   • Gender

   • Occupation

   • Ethnicity

   • Level of education

   • Location

6. Create a media strategy to ensure everyone is aware that it is happening. For example, invite journalists, create a website, create a social media presence, etc.

7. Citizens are chosen using a random selection process, followed by a sorting process to ensure that the sample accurately represents the population as a whole (this is called 'sortition')

8. CA begins:

   a. Integration stage

   b. Education stage

   c. Deliberation stage

   d. Recommendations stage

   f. Voting stage: Recommendations approved when, for example, 80% agree

9. Publicly announce and publish results:

   a. Publicly list details of those in government who are responsible for action

10. Hold regular CA reunions to maintain pressure on government.

Spread the word

Point 2 is essential: everybody should know about the citizens’ assembly and how it has been organized, so that the public trust it. Otherwise, governments may smile, nod, and agree with a CA, then ignore its recommendations. If the nation is aware of the recommendations however, they will be harder for the government to ignore. More pressure equals more action.

A big media budget can fund substantial and ongoing news coverage. A citizens’ assembly should scream and shout about its existence, so everybody’s talking about it.

Are citizens’ assemblies the same as people’s assemblies?

No. Extinction Rebellion also uses people’s assemblies (PAs), so it is easy to confuse the two terms. Both encourage decision-making through constructive conversation, but a people’s assembly does not have a selection process; anybody can take part. PAs also don't have a learning phase led by experts, nor detailed, critical thinking and learning at the beginning. A PA can also be much shorter than a CA, such as a day or less.

For example, during an Extinction Rebellion protest with a growing police presence, a PA can answer these questions:

• Is it time to leave?

• Is it important to stay and call for more support?

• Is this protest still achieving our aims?

You can answer these questions in a fair, all-inclusive way with a people’s assembly. Every PA participant states their opinion in a small group, followed by deliberation, listening, and conclusions. Each group then submits its conclusions and the assembly reaches a decision.

Extinction Rebellion does not have a leadership hierarchy, so people’s assemblies are fundamental: PAs avoid top-down, undemocratic decision-making.

Read more about people’s assemblies in this guide by Extinction Rebellion UK

Nations without democracy

Authoritarian regimes would not tolerate a citizens’ assembly. Meanwhile, governments of many ‘democratic’ countries may commission a citizens’ assembly that is simply a public consultation, with no real decision-making power. What can we do about this?

Extinction Rebellion’s Participative Democracy hub uses peoples’ assemblies to tackle these problems through a growing global network. The hub organizes regular worldwide People’s Assembly Marathons (PAthons), during which a wave of PAs take place across several days. Interested politicians are invited, who may absorb the ideas that they hear from citizens. Another possible outcome is that the government will agree to a citizens’ assembly to stop growing waves of PAs.

Find more information, resources, and training details at XR’s Participative Democracy Working Group: https://partdem-media.wixsite.com/xr-partdemocracy

Are any governments using citizens’ assemblies already?

Good news: there are already examples of government-led citizens’ assemblies.

Poland: Gdańsk Citizens’ Assemblies, 2016 onwards

• In the city of Gdańsk (population 350,000), the mayor must organize an assembly of 56 citizens when a question proposed by residents attracts 5,000 signatures. This began after the city government failed to effectively deal with floods in 2016. Decisions made in these assemblies are binding.

Canada: Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, 2004

• 161 citizens concluded that a new ‘single transferable vote’ system should be implemented in the Canadian province of British Columbia. This conclusion was then the subject of a referendum in 2005. 57.7% of voters were in favor, but because at least 60% was required, no change was made.

Ireland: The Citizens’ Assembly, 2016-2018

• 99 citizens debated several complicated topics, such as abortion rights, and the challenges of an aging population. Several outcomes included a referendum on abortion rights, as well as a list of 13 recommendations on how Ireland could become a leader in tackling climate change. The Citizens’ Assembly returned in January 2020 to discuss social change in Ireland and the advancement of gender equality.

France: Citizen's Convention on Climate, 2019-2020

• ‘In a spirit of social justice’, 150 citizens attended a series of seven weekend sessions to discuss how France should achieve a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The convention was a response to France’s widespread and prolonged mouvement des gilets jaunes protests. At the time of writing, implementing the convention’s 149 proposals are causing difficulties for President Emmanuel Macron and a bill is due to be presented in December 2020.

A citizens’ constitution

Chile’s Constitution Referendum is a thrilling example of another way to place citizens at the centre of decision-making.

On 25 October 2020, 78.24% of voting Chileans demanded a new constitution for the nation. This referendum followed almost 12 months of continual, massive protests caused by the former constitution, which Augusto Pinochet (Chile’s ex-military dictator) wrote to benefit the rich and powerful.

This vote also declared that a group of nominated and elected citizens will write the new constitution, which the nation will assess and vote on in mid-2022.

Global Assembly 2021

Citizens’ assemblies are clearly growing in significance, because a global version is being planned by globalassembly.org. Conducted online, Global Assembly 2021 will involve 1000 people chosen via a lottery from around the world, taking place in the months before the UN’s Cop26 climate change conference in November 2021. This huge CA won’t have any power over governments but, if it’s managed well, the final recommendations will be difficult to ignore.

Written by: Neil Simpson, read more here: rebellion.global