{"id":8815,"date":"2019-07-22T09:10:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T09:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=8815"},"modified":"2019-07-22T09:19:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T09:19:01","slug":"what-are-citizens-assemblies-good-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2019\/07\/what-are-citizens-assemblies-good-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Citizens’ Assemblies good for?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On 1 July, the Constitution Unit held an event entitled \u2018Citizens\u2019 Assemblies: What are they good for?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking were Joanna Cherry QC MP, SNP Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson at Westminster<\/strong><\/a>; Sarah Allan, Head of Engagement at Involve<\/a><\/strong>; Lilian Greenwood MP, Chair of the Commons Transport Select Committee<\/a><\/strong>; and Professor Graham Smith, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanna Cherry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanna Cherry offered an overview of the Citizens\u2019 Assembly of Scotland<\/a>,  which was announced<\/a> by Nicola Sturgeon in April. Just as Ireland\u2019s Citizens\u2019 Assembly<\/a> and Constitutional Convention<\/a> were born out of a time of crisis following the financial crash in 2008, the constitutional crisis caused by Brexit stimulated the political interest necessary for the creation of Scotland\u2019s own assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brexit process has reignited debate about the relationship between Scotland and the rest of the UK; Scotland voted to remain in the EU but has had \u2018no say\u2019 in the Brexit negotiations. In addition, if Brexit happens, Scots will lose their EU citizenship, despite the argument that independence was a threat to Scotland\u2019s place in the EU being a prominent part of the 2014 \u2018No\u2019 campaign. A recent poll by the Sunday Times<\/a> has indicated a majority of Scots would vote for independence if faced with a \u2018no deal\u2019 Brexit or a Boris Johnson premiership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 26 June, Mike Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, updated the Scottish parliament<\/a> on the progress made in establishing the assembly. 120 citizen members are to be selected at random from the electoral register. Stratification by age, ethnic group, socio-economic background, geography and political attitude will ensure that the assembly is representative of Scotland\u2019s adult population. Legislation to extend the Scottish franchise<\/a>to refugees and asylum seekers will widen the pool that assembly members will be drawn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assembly will sit for six sessions from autumn to spring. In addition, the assembly will be entirely independent from the executive; its secretariat will be located outside the Scottish government. The intention is that the process will be transparent: deliberative sessions will be live-streamed and the public will be able to see and comment on each stage of the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for its remit, the Assembly will look at three broad questions: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. What kind of country is Scotland seeking to build?<\/li>
  2. How can Scotland best overcome the challenges it faces, including those\nthat arise from Brexit?<\/li>
  3. What further work needs to be carried out to give people the detail they\nneed to make informed choices about their future?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The\nConservatives and Liberal Democrats in Scotland have declined to support the\nassembly<\/a>, on the basis that it is part of\nthe project of furthering independence. Nonetheless, it enjoys the backing of\nover two thirds of MSPs, as both the Greens and Scottish Labour have pledged\ntheir support. The Scottish government has committed to ensuring the\nrecommendations are fed back to the Scottish parliament through a proper\nprocess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Concluding her remarks, Cherry said that if the Citizens\u2019 Assembly in\nIreland could resolve the difficult and controversial issue of abortion, she\nhad \u2018very high hopes\u2019 that an assembly in Scotland could deal satisfactorily\nwith a topic as important as Scottish independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sarah Allan <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sarah Allan began by outlining the key characteristics of a citizens\u2019\nassembly \u2013 a type of public engagement process known as \u2018a deliberative\nmini-public\u2019. Mini-publics bring together a representative sample of the\npopulation, usually in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, social class and place\nof residence, and often in addition, in terms of attitude. They involve a\nthree-step process of learning, deliberation and decision and generally involve\n50\u2013150 participants. They generally take place over multiple weekends but some\nhave been as short as three days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Civic lottery is considered the \u2018gold standard\u2019 in membership recruitment.\nThis involves selecting a number of households, usually from the postcode\ndatabase, and sending them a letter inviting them to take part. In the case of\nthe 60-member Citizen\u2019s Assembly on the future of Wales<\/a> organised by the Welsh\nAssembly, 10,000 households were sent an invitation letter. A stratified sample\nis then taken from the pool of respondents. In order to ensure accessibility,\nparticipants are generally financially compensated for their attendance, and\nchildcare, disability and other care requirements are often\ncovered.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As for the assembly process itself, the \u2018learning stage\u2019 has two parts.\nDuring the first part, members engage in background learning about the topic.\nDuring the Citizens\u2019 Assembly on Social\nCare<\/a> (CASC) for example, this\ninvolved questions such as \u2018What is social care?\u2019; \u2018How is the current system\nfunded?\u2019; and \u2018Why are people saying there is a crisis?\u2019. The aim is to ensure\n\u2018a level playing field\u2019 on which everyone has a certain level of knowledge of\nthe issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The second part involves hearing different answers to the problem posed.\nParticipants will hear from and be able to question a range of people, who\ntogether represented the different answers to the questions being posed. In\norder to ensure balance, several layers of checks are put in place. An advisory\npanel of key stakeholders and individuals with differing opinions check the\nwork of the expert leads, the information provided to the assembly, list of\nindividuals giving evidence, and length of speaking time. The commissioning\nbody will also check these things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The next stage is \u2018structured\u2019 deliberation. Participants are given tasks\nsuch as writing pros and cons for different options and ranking their\npreferences, mainly as a means of stimulating thought and discussion. Finally,\ncomes the decision process, which usually culminates in a simple vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Trained facilitators oversee the process to further ensure balance. A\nseating plan ensures participants from different backgrounds mix, and\nfacilitators on each table ensure members can participate equally. During the\nquestioning process for example, members write down questions, feed them back\nto their table, and then prioritise the questions before they are posed to the\nspeaker by a facilitator. Analysis<\/a> of the\nconversations that took place at the Citizens\u2019 Assembly on Brexitfound there was no correlation\nbetween a member\u2019s speaking time and any particular personal characteristic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Finally, Allan addressed the effectiveness and use of citizens\u2019 assemblies.\nShe cited three types of issues that might benefit from this type of\ndeliberation; issues that are politically \u2018stuck\u2019 (such as social care\nfunding); moral issues (such as abortion and equal marriage in Ireland); and\nconstitutional reform. Citizens\u2019 assemblies produce multiple outputs and are\nthus well suited to tackling complex issues. Crucially however, \u2018political appetite\u2019\nis necessary \u2014 and cross-party support preferable \u2014 in order to ensure that the\nrecommendations are acted upon. A clear question, sufficient time and a large\nenough budget to cover the topic in the appropriate detail are also important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lilian Greenwood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lilian Greenwood began by explaining why interest in citizens\u2019 assemblies\nhad grown in Westminster over the past year. She said that a number of her\ncolleagues consider deliberative processes a partial solution to the perceived\nbreakdown of trust in politicians, because they encourage understanding across\npartisan divides and bring the public back into policy formulation in a\nsystematic and intensive way. The Citizens\u2019 Assembly on Social\nCare<\/a> \u2014 run jointly by the Health and Social Care Committee and the Housing,\nCommunities and Local Government Committee \u2014 was well received by MPs who\nrecognised that it had provided valuable evidence on a complex, long-standing\nissue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Greenwood argued that assemblies provide an effective means of \u2018confronting\npeople with hard choices\u2019 and getting the public to engage with the issues\n\u2018from an informed perspective\u2019. As part of the evidence-gathering process, they\ncan help government ministers make tough choices by giving them a sense of what\nan informed public want, what they feel is fair, and what they could accept,\nthus potentially unlocking politically difficult issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    She conceded that citizens\u2019 assemblies aren\u2019t panaceas \u2013 government has to\npick up on recommendations. However, drawing parallels between the process of\ncitizens\u2019 assemblies and the work already undertaken within parliament,\nGreenwood suggested that they could fit relatively comfortably into the work of\nselect committees. Indeed, thanks to the success of deliberative processes\nabroad and growing familiarity with them domestically, citizens\u2019 assemblies\ncould be one way of improving ministerial uptake on committee recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Citizens\u2019 Assembly on Climate\nChange<\/a>, jointly commissioned in June by\nsix Commons committees (including the Transport Committee, which she chairs),\nwill address the question of how to combat climate change in the UK and reach\nthe net zero carbon target announced by the government on\n12 June<\/a>. Committee members hope the\nprocess will help establish consensus and public support around the radical\nchanges required to reach the target and help ministers make the case for those\nchanges. The Assembly will be part-funded by parliament but the committees hope\nthat funding will be matched by third sector organisations. The six committees\nwill have input into selecting questions but will not be involved in running\nthe Assembly once it is established. An accompanying online consultation will\nattempt to capture wider public views on the matter. She concluded by observing\nthat this is \u2018new territory\u2019 for committees and that the current and past\nassemblies are part of \u2018a learning process\u2019 about how parliament can and should\nuse such a method of citizen engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Graham Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Professor Smith began by noting that interest in citizens\u2019 assemblies has\ngrown exponentially over the past few months. In the last two weeks alone, the\nIrish government responded to citizens\u2019 assembly recommendations on climate\nchange<\/a>, and Extinction Rebellion<\/a> have been campaigning for\ntheir own assembly on the same topic. For Smith, citizens\u2019 assemblies \u2018bring\nthe considered judgement of citizens into the political process\u2019, often\nbreaking political deadlock. Ireland\u2019s experience has illustrated this and been\na \u2018game changer\u2019 in driving acceptance of deliberative processes among the political\nclass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Although assemblies have been the subject of much recent \u2018hype\u2019, they are\nonly one type of deliberative mini-public; citizens\u2019 juries, consensus\nconferences and deliberative opinion polls have been running since the 1970s.\nPractitioners have significant experience of running them, but Smith expressed\ncaution about the fact that some politicians have been rushing to organise\ntheir own assemblies without clarity about their purpose, remit or\nquestions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Smith went on to highlight three key factors for a successful citizens\u2019\nassembly. Firstly, its task must be clear. It may be complex and possibly\ncontroversial, but must engage citizens and enable them to make meaningful\ntrade-offs. Secondly, it must have sufficient time to answer a question. The Irish\nCitizens\u2019 Assembly, for example, spent six weeks discussing abortion but only\ntwo on climate change. With an issue as complex as climate change and with so\nlittle time, Smith argued, it was understandable that their recommendations had\nhad a lesser impact. Thirdly, deliberative processes need to be formally tied\ninto the political process to ensure they have real impact. He cited innovative\nexamples from abroad of how this has been done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, activist Marcin Gerwin<\/a> has run citizens\u2019 assemblies in partnership with Polish city\ncouncils. Crucially, he asks the mayor to agree, ahead of the assembly\u2019s\nsitting, to commit to implementing any proposal that receives more than 80%\nsupport from the assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the parliament of the German-speaking community of Belgium,\ncitizens\u2019 assemblies have been \u2018institutionalised\u2019 through a \u2018Citizens\u2019 Council\u2019<\/a>. Made up of a small group of\nrandomly selected citizens, the Council hears evidence from parliament,\ngovernment and citizens before deciding what issues should be dealt with by a\ncitizens\u2019 assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In Madrid, citizens can submit propositions for consideration by a citizens\u2019 assembly<\/a>. The proposition with the highest number of signatories is considered by\nthe assembly, which then makes recommendations to the city council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Finally, deliberative mini-publics in Oregon have been integrated into to\nthe existing citizens\u2019 initiative process in order to improve the quality of\ninformation provided before referendums. The Citizens\u2019 Initiative Review\nCommission<\/a> considers a proposal, hears from the relevant groups involved, and\nprovides a recommendation to citizens about the credibility of arguments made\nbefore a policy proposal is put to a referendum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Smith\u2019s concluding thought was that as good as citizens\u2019 assemblies are,\nthey are not a \u2018silver bullet\u2019 and politicians should consider carefully\nwhether one is actually beneficial before committing to such a process in relation\nto a particular issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This blog post from the Constitution Unit at UCL<\/a> is a brief summary of the main speeches made during the event, and does not summarise the contributions during the ensuing Q&A. The full event video is available on YouTube<\/a> and does include the lively discussion period following the main contributions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Electoral Reform Society in Scotland staged a similar event in Edinburgh recently with, inter alia, Jo Cherry and David Martin, ex-MEP and co-convenor of the proposed new assembly: you can watch a replay here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    ‘…as good as citizens\u2019 assemblies are, they are not a \u2018silver bullet\u2019 and politicians should consider carefully whether one is actually beneficial before committing to such a process in relation to a particular issue.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":8821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[384],"class_list":["post-8815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-scottish-citizens-assembly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}