TY - JOUR
T1 - Institutionalising participatory and deliberative procedures
T2 - The origins of the first permanent citizens’ assembly
AU - Macq, Hadrien
AU - Jacquet, Vincent
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the F.R.S.‐FNRS through a MIS/PGY grant (project ‘Ostbelgien’ n. F.4534.20) as well as by the COST Action CA17135 ‐ Constitution‐making and deliberative democracy.
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Min Reuchamps, Christoph Niessen and Catherine Fallon for their insights and comments on previous versions of this paper, as well as Elisa Minsart for transcribing the interviews. We would also like to express our gratitude to the participants to the ‘One year of Permanent Citizens’ Dialogue’ Workshop for their valuable comments at an early stage of our writing process. We further thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to all the interviewees who kindly accepted to answer our questions. This research was funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS through a MIS/PGY grant (project ‘Ostbelgien’ n. F.4534.20) as well as by the COST Action CA17135 - Constitution-making and deliberative democracy. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. European Journal of Political Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - In the context of public disaffection towards representative democracies, political leaders are increasingly establishing citizens’ assemblies to foster participatory governance. These deliberative fora composed of randomly selected citizens have attracted much scholarly attention regarding their theoretical foundations and internal functioning. Nevertheless, we lack research that scrutinizes the reasons why political leaders create such new institutions. This article fills this gap by analysing a specific case: the first permanent randomly selected citizens’ assembly that will work in collaboration with a parliament in the long-term (Ostbelgien, Belgium). This case is analysed through a framework that pays close attention to the context in which it developed, the profiles of political elites that supported its creation, as well as the multiple objectives it was vested with. The findings reveal that initiators of citizens’ assemblies fundamentally conceive them as a way to strengthen a polity's identity, to save the electoral model of democracy, and to restore the legitimacy of traditional political leaders. Our analysis of this particular conception lead us to argue for the need of developing context-sentive approaches to participatory and deliberative procedures, as well as to discuss whether we should consider the latter as mere elites’ legitimation tools.
AB - In the context of public disaffection towards representative democracies, political leaders are increasingly establishing citizens’ assemblies to foster participatory governance. These deliberative fora composed of randomly selected citizens have attracted much scholarly attention regarding their theoretical foundations and internal functioning. Nevertheless, we lack research that scrutinizes the reasons why political leaders create such new institutions. This article fills this gap by analysing a specific case: the first permanent randomly selected citizens’ assembly that will work in collaboration with a parliament in the long-term (Ostbelgien, Belgium). This case is analysed through a framework that pays close attention to the context in which it developed, the profiles of political elites that supported its creation, as well as the multiple objectives it was vested with. The findings reveal that initiators of citizens’ assemblies fundamentally conceive them as a way to strengthen a polity's identity, to save the electoral model of democracy, and to restore the legitimacy of traditional political leaders. Our analysis of this particular conception lead us to argue for the need of developing context-sentive approaches to participatory and deliberative procedures, as well as to discuss whether we should consider the latter as mere elites’ legitimation tools.
KW - citizens’ assemblies
KW - democratic innovations
KW - participatory and deliberative procedures
KW - participatory governance
KW - political leaders
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120913835&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1475-6765.12499
DO - 10.1111/1475-6765.12499
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120913835
SN - 0304-4130
VL - 62
SP - 156
EP - 173
JO - European Journal of Political Research
JF - European Journal of Political Research
IS - 1
ER -