omniharmonicCitizen Assemblies
Citizen assemblies are groups of randomly selected members of the public brought together to deliberate on specific policy questions. Using sortition — selection by lottery rather than election — these bodies aim to create a representative microcosm of society that can engage in informed, structured deliberation free from electoral pressures and partisan incentives.
The significance of citizen assemblies lies in their capacity to break through the gridlock and polarization that plague electoral politics. Because participants are randomly selected rather than self-selected, assemblies avoid the ideological sorting that dominates party systems. Given access to expert testimony, balanced information, and skilled facilitation, ordinary citizens consistently demonstrate the capacity for nuanced, thoughtful policy-making. Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly on abortion and marriage equality demonstrated how assemblies can navigate issues that elected politicians consider too politically dangerous to touch.
Citizen assemblies represent one practical expression of participatory-democracy and connect to broader principles of collective-intelligence — the idea that diverse groups make better decisions than homogeneous expert panels. They embody subsidiarity when organized at the bioregional or municipal level, and they can complement consent-based-governance approaches by providing a deliberative foundation for policy proposals that then move through consent-based ratification processes.