The growing prominence of deliberative mini-publics and their impact on democratic government

ABSTRACT

In the opening lines of Ruling the Void Peter Mair states that ‘[t]he age of party democracy has passed’. In his eyes political parties are failing and with them democracy itself. This paper addresses Mair’s concerns about the state of democracy. We review the latest evidence on how democracies have been innovating over the past twenty years or more, with particular attention to reforms that seek to bring citizens into the heart of discussions about constitutional and institutional reforms and significant policy issues. We show how deliberative mini-publics are becoming a more common feature of democratic government today, and, in some instances, how they are being embedded into the democratic system. We assess the implications for the state of state of democratic government today.

KEYWORDS:

• democratic decline
• democratic innovation
• deliberative mini-publics
• citizens’ assemblies

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ken Carty, Nicole Bolleyer and our reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Blended democracy: democratic innovation at the dawn of the twenties’. Roundtable organised by the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze, 19 May 2021.

2 Our focus on deliberative processes is taking a slice (albeit a very significant slice at that) of the range of citizen oriented democratic innovations around the world. The Participedia website gives a sense of the wider range of different innovations – listing 336 different ‘methods’ across 135 countries. https://participedia.net/.

3 https://www.involve.org.uk/citizens-assembly-tracker (accessed on 4 September 2021).

4 A recent national survey of German mass opinion illustrates this, with 54 per cent of respondents supporting the use of DMPs at the national level. See https://www.buergerrat.de/en/news/poll-majority-in-favour-of-citizens-assemblies/ (accessed on 4 August 2021).

5 A recent assessment of the large number of local citizens’ assemblies commissioned by UK local authorities found that the councils on the whole have tended to ‘follow through with policy action’ https://constitution-unit.com/2021/01/08/local-citizens-assemblies-in-the-uk-an-early-report-card/ (accessed 1 September 2021).

6 Of course, the point could be made that perhaps we’re holding DMPs to a higher standard than other institutions. For instance, is cherry-picking of a DMPs’ recommendations all that different from the decision of governments to not implement all of their election manifestos?

7 https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/newham-citizens-assembly-to-discuss-greening-the-borough-7998292 (accessed on 4 August 2021).

8 For recent discussion of these examples, see https://constitution-unit.com/2021/05/21/the-future-of-citizens-assemblies-in-scotland/ (accessed on 4 August 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David M. Farrell

David M. Farrell, MRIA, is a Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. His most recent books include: The Oxford Handbook of Irish Politics (co-edited, Oxford University Press, 2021), and Deliberative Mini-Publics: Core Design Features (co-authored, Bristol University Press, 2021).

Luke Field

Luke Field is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Social Science Research Institute and Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland. His research interests include democratic innovations, political psychology, public opinion, elections and referendums, and campaigns.