![]() ![]() That action followed seven years of major demonstrations against austerity policies in the post-2008 Irish economic downturn.Carton, Andrew Driver, Cormac Jackson, Andrew Clarke, Siobhán Ireland’s first assembly was established in 2016 by its parliament in response to a proposal put forth by We the Citizens, a research project involving several Irish university political science departments that designed and conducted a pilot citizens’ assembly. In Ireland, citizens’ assemblies now regularly advise its government. The last one that considered gender equality was completed in April 2021, and its recommendations - which addressed numerous issues, including parental leave, early childhood education and care - are presently advancing in the legislature. The success of these exercises in participatory democracy depends on initial support from officials, accurate sortition, reliable and balanced expert information, transparency, extensive communication with the public and, finally, adoption and implementation of the recommendations by the officials. The participants gather either in person or virtually, are paid, receive information from experts and then deliberate together to make policy recommendations to government officials. Rather than bringing all residents of a particular jurisdiction together, recently leaders have turned to selecting representative demographic samples of the population using the technique of “sortition.” People identified in the sample are invited to join the assembly, which functions like a jury. However one fresh tactic is increasingly being used to establish broad dialogue, actively engage citizens in policy decisions and thereby revitalize democracy.Ĭitizens’ assemblies have a long history, from ancient Athens and Rome to Rousseau’s Geneva and Vermont’s annual town halls. ![]() Neither escalating partisan conflict nor escapism are solutions. Both trends stem from people’s loss of trust in their government and belief that officials don’t represent and serve them. Threats to our democracy are two-fold: a growth of support for authoritarianism by some and the withdrawal from and lack of engagement in political activity by others. ![]()
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