Impacts of citizens' assemblies
Citizens’ assemblies have gained considerable momentum in the last decade as an innovative tool for participatory deliberation, agenda setting, and policymaking. But what do we know about their impacts? As a global hub for participatory democracy, ‘People Powered’ has reviewed nearly 70 studies and summarised the latest research findings in 19 key statements.
The most important findings:
- At the individual level, global research shows that citizens’ assemblies reliably increase the knowledge, skills, and political efficacy of those who participate directly in the process, and can even contribute to depolarization by helping citizens with more extreme political views find common ground.
- At the community level, there is consistent evidence of positive spillover effects to those who simply learn about the assembly process and recommendations, such as increasing trust in government and their fellow citizens, and increased willingness of non-participants to engage in politics and consider alternate political views.
- At the level of government, citizens’ assemblies can even reshape traditional government processes and dynamics, broadening legislators’ perspectives, bypassing institutional deadlocks, and giving a public mandate for policy action on long-term challenges like climate change.
Since the first modern Citizens' Assembly in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which took place in 2004 on the subject of electoral law, more than 700 mini-publics have been convened worldwide, according to the database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As citizens' assemblies are a relatively new participatory tool, the full extent of the effects of randomised citizen participation is not yet clear.
Literature often inaccessible
Although more and more studies and evaluations are attempting to understand the impact of citizens' assemblies, much of the literature is inaccessible, either behind paywalls or written in English in an academic language that can be incomprehensible even to native speakers. Furthermore, most practitioners in government and civil society simply do not have the time to sift through dozens of studies to find information that is relevant to them.
People Powered did therefore the work of summarizing all the most recent research, incorporating learnings from 66 studies across five continents and 24 countries.
Recommendations on establishing citizens' assemblies
The data is organised into 19 key findings that illustrate the impact of citizens' assemblies on people, communities and governments. Each key finding is supported by at least three individual studies. Details are provided for each study, including its geographical location, the type of mini-public and the methodology used. The evaluation also offers recommendations for advocacy, planning and design, as well as research, monitoring and evaluation, to help those interested in preparing and implementing citizens' assemblies.