book: De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2023

De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies

Edited by: Min Reuchamps , Julien Vrydagh and Yanina Welp

Volume 1 in the series Citizens’ Assemblies and Mini-Publics

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110758269

Overview
Contents

About this book

Now in paperback

Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) are flourishing around the world. Quite often composed of randomly selected citizens, CAs, arguably, come as a possible answer to contemporary democratic challenges. Democracies worldwide are indeed confronted with a series of disruptive phenomena such as a widespread perception of distrust and growing polarization as well as low performance. Many actors seek to reinvigorate democracy with citizen participation and deliberation. CAs are expected to have the potential to meet this twofold objective. But, despite deliberative and inclusive qualities of CAs, many questions remain open. The increasing popularity of CAs call for a holistic reflection and evaluation on their origins, current uses and future directions.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies showcases the state of the art around the study of CAs and opens novel perspectives informed by multidisciplinary research and renewed thinking about deliberative participatory processes. It discusses the latest theoretical, empirical, and methodological scientific developments on CAs and offers a unique resource for scholars, decision-makers, practitioners, and curious citizens to better understand the qualities, purposes, promises but also pitfalls of CAs.

First comprehensive analytical overview of this increasingly used democratic innovation.
Multidisciplinary approach
Case studies and renewed thinking
Useful resource for practitioners

Author / Editor information

Min Reuchamps is Professor of Political Science at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium. His teaching and research interests include federalism and multi-level governance, democracy and its transformations and innovations, participatory and deliberative methods, as well as relations between language(s) and politics and in particular the role of metaphors in political discourse. He has published over twenty books and edited volumes on these topics. In the wake of these works, he initiated the COST Action ‘Constitution-making and deliberative democracy’. He is regularly invited to observe and assess democratic processes as well as to appear in the media and in the public debate. In Belgium, he actively contributed to the design of the Permanent Citizens’ Dialogue of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community and of the mixed parliamentary committees for the Parliament of the Region of Brussels, the French-speaking Parliament in Brussels and the Walloon Parliament, as well as the federal online platform for the future of the country.

Yanina Welp is Research Fellow at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, Graduate Institute in Geneva (Switzerland) and co-founder of the Red de Politólogas. Between 2008 and 2018 she was a principal researcher at the Centre for Democracy Studies and co-director of the Zurich Latin American Centre (2016–2019), both at the University of Zurich. She finished her Habilitation in 2015 at the University of St Gallen. She holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the Pompeu Fabra University (Spain) and two Bachelor degrees in Social Communication and Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Recent representative publications include the The will of the people. Populism and Citizens Participation in Latin America (De Gruyter, 2022), and the edited books The Politics of Recall Elections (Palgrave, 2020) and El diablo está en los detalles. Referéndum y poder político en América Latina (The Devil is in the Details. Referendum and Political Power in Latin America, PUCP, 2020).

Julien Vrydagh is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stuttgart working on the ERC funded project "Designing Democracy on Earth and Mars". He has a joint PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the UCLouvain. He is also a research associate at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. His PhD thesis investigated the influence of deliberative minipublics on public decisions. His broader research interests include democratic theory, citizen participation, deliberative democracy, systems thinking, and public policy. He has recently published articles in European Political Science Review, Policy Studies, Representation, the Journal of Legislative Studies, and the Journal of Deliberative Democracy.

Supplementary Materials

Niessen_Table24_1_corrected

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
1 Citizens’ assemblies: An introduction Julien Vrydagh Open Access Download PDF	1
Part 1: Theoretical perspectives
2 Representation and citizens’ assemblies Michael K. MacKenzie Open Access Download PDF	19
3 Citizens’ assemblies and accountability Pierre-Étienne Vandamme Open Access Download PDF	35
4 Which decision-making authority for citizens’ assemblies Cristina Lafont Open Access Download PDF	47
5 Linking citizens’ assemblies to policymaking: Real-life and visionary connections Brigitte Geissel Open Access Download PDF	59
6 Citizens’ assemblies and the public sphere John Rountree and Nicole Curato Open Access Download PDF	73
7 Beyond citizens’ assemblies: Expanding the repertoire of democratic reform John Boswell, Carolyn M. Hendriks and Selen A. Ercan Open Access Download PDF	85
8 A problem-based approach to citizens’ assemblies Antonin Lacelle-Webster and Mark E. Warren Open Access Download PDF	97
9 Citizens’ assemblies: A critical perspective Stephen Elstub and Zohreh Khoban Open Access Download PDF	113
Part 2: The uses of citizens’ assemblies
10 Citizens’ assemblies and the crisis of democracy Rasmus Ø. Nielsen and Eva Sørensen Open Access Download PDF	127
11 Citizens’ assemblies: Top-down or bottom-up? – both, please! Sonia Bussu and Dannica Fleuß Open Access Download PDF	141
12 Mixed-member deliberative forums: Citizens’ assemblies bringing together elected officials and citizens Clodagh Harris, David M. Farrell and Jane Suiter Open Access Download PDF	155
13 Deliberation in citizens’ assemblies with children Kei Nishiyama Open Access Download PDF	169
14 Citizens’ assemblies and direct democracy Nenad Stojanović Open Access Download PDF	183
15 Citizens’ assemblies at supranational level: Addressing the EU and global democratic deficit Irena Fiket Open Access Download PDF	197
16 Between hopes and systemic unsustainability: An analysis of citizens assemblies’ potential on climate change Louise Knops and Julien Vrydagh Open Access Download PDF	211
17 Authoritarian participationism and local citizens’ assemblies in Latin America: A cross look at three national cases Armando Chaguaceda and Raudiel Peña Barrios Open Access Download PDF	227
Part 3: Assessment
18 Evaluating citizens’ assemblies: Criteria, methods and tools Didier Caluwaerts and Min Reuchamps Open Access Download PDF	239
19 Internal dynamics at work Marina Lindell Open Access Download PDF	257
20 Citizens’ assemblies and their effects on the population Saskia Goldberg Open Access Download PDF	271
21 The impact of citizens’ assemblies on policymaking: Approaches and methods Elisa Minsart and Vincent Jacquet Open Access Download PDF	283
22 Citizens’ assemblies in authoritarian regimes: China, Cuba, and Libya Baogang He Open Access Download PDF	295
Part 4: Different perceptions of citizens’ assemblies
23 Citizens’ support for citizens’ assemblies David Talukder and Jean-Benoit Pilet Open Access Download PDF	311
24 How do elected officials perceive deliberative citizens’ assemblies? Christoph Niessen Open Access Download PDF	325
25 The deliberative public servants: The roles of public servants in citizens’ assemblies Jehan Bottin and Alice Mazeaud Open Access Download PDF	337
26 Populists and citizens’ assemblies: Caught between strategy and principles? Kristof Jacobs Open Access Download PDF	349
27 Citizens’ assemblies and communication studies Rousiley C. M. Maia Open Access Download PDF	365
28 Social movements and citizens’ assemblies Andrea Felicetti Open Access Download PDF	379
Part 5: Conclusion
29 Citizens’ assemblies: Beyond utopian and dystopian approaches Yanina Welp Open Access Download PDF	391
Index Open Access Download PDF	407

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Advanced undergraduates, graduates, academics, practitioners, policy makers in politics and related areas
Pages
- Front matter: 18
- Main content: 412
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 9
- Tables: 12
Keywords: deliberative democracy; mini-publics; citizen participation; political theory

eBook

Published: May 31, 2023
ISBN: 9783110758269

Hardcover

Published: June 19, 2023
ISBN: 9783110758153

Paperback

Published: November 4, 2024
ISBN: 9783111632438