Citizens Assembly
From dKosopedia
A Citizens Assembly is a means of "mass public brokerage that can "engage citizens in dialogue" to approve of very deep changes in systems, for instance, electoral systems. For a blog covering citizens assembly developments worldwide, see http://www.jhsnider.net/citizensassembly. To do something about it, see Electoral Reform Project. Additional references are listed below.
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Mass deliberation
This name and deliberative democracy method arose in British Columbia. The term Citizens Jury has also been used in the UK. However it has been done in many countries under many names: "The process of drafting the South African constitution is an example of how one can reconcile the idea of popular sovereignty with accommodation of different groups." - [1]
It is thought to have some specific merits for participatory democracy:
"Through mass public deliberation one can avoid gut reactions in referenda (a major weakness of direct democracy), and deepen public judgments. Citizen engagement may also strengthen a citizen's sense of collective identity.
Finding more ways for individuals to participate in public life in meaningful ways can strengthen their commitment to the national community and perhaps even increase voter turnout."
Some of these merits seem to be validated by experience in Canada: "Interviewed following their experience in the BC Citizens Assembly, citizens articulated their greater sense of connection with the larger BC community."
"Citizen engagement could also lead to better public policy because it brings an additional range of concerns and perspectives to decisions and leads to more informed decision-making. Including citizens in the policy-making process will reduce the likelihood of unexpected challenges to policies appearing after decisions have been made that increase citizens’ cynicism of political elites and lead some citizens to resort to litigation."
Application to electoral reform
The BC Assembly ended in the presentation of the BC electoral reform referendum which achieved 57% support and over 50% in 77 of 79 districts - in the other two support was just over 49 percent! An overwhelming level of support, equal to the highest level of support ever received for any ruling government in that province's history. And amazing considering BC's many and fractious political parties (which include among others the BC Marijuana Party, BC Sex Party, Green Party of BC, BC Family Heritage Partyand the absurdly named BC Unity Party and BC Liberal Party).
Accordingly, the Citizens Assembly method seems to be one way to build strong public support for innovations even in systems of very great importance where experiments are discouraged, and where there is no agreement on anything else.
Improving the method
The BC method was however not perfect, and, ultimately, didn't produce a proposal that actually passed the (very high at 60%) threshold of support.
For the Ontario electoral reform referendum, Fair Vote Canada claimed that the "Ontario democratic renewal process must improve the Citizens Assembly model" (March 8, 2005) [
Yesterday the McGuinty government tabled legislation to support formation of an Ontario citizens’ assembly on electoral reform, but Fair Vote Ontario warns that the Ontario process must be improved over that recently used in British Columbia. “We commend the Premier for moving forward on a citizen-driven process with a citizens’ assembly and a referendum,” said Joe Murray, chair of the Fair Vote Ontario campaign. “But Ontario must improve the model pioneered in BC over the past year.” - [2]
"Among 10 specific improvements recommended by Fair Vote Ontario, Joe Murray highlighted the following:
- "Access to a variety of experts: The assembly should have presentations from and ongoing access to a variety of voting system experts, including those with differing opinions. The assembly must be protected from being deliberately or inadvertently steered by staff experts."
- "Flexibility on recommendations: Given the recent reduction of seats in the Ontario legislature, the assembly should be allowed to consider models that involve an increase in the number of MPPs. In addition, if the assembly cannot reach a general consensus on the single best alternative voting system, they should be allowed to present two alternatives, with voters using a preference ballot in the referendum to choose among the alternatives and the status quo."
- "No super-majority required for adoption: Unlike the BC government, the Ontario government and political parties should not impose a super-majority referendum result for adoption of a new voting system. If the Government claims the right to make binding and far-reaching policy decisions based on simple majority rule, the same standard should apply to citizens."
Potential crisis of authority
Among other things, these recommendations would avoid the current problem of BC Premier Gordon Campbell, who holds a false majority with only 46% of the BC popular vote, but has majority control of the BC legislature. Meanwhile, the electoral reform referendum got drastically more support than himself, but he is not obligated (legally) to implement it, because it just failed to achieve the 60% threshold. To complicate matters further, the NDP and Green Party hold between them over 50% of the vote, and in a strictly proportional scheme, would be guaranteed majority control as a coalition. These opponents, and advocates of reform, are already putting Campbell in a very tough position with respect to implementing some type of reform. But since his government set the higher threshold in the first place, it makes him look weak to give in and implement the system as is after it failed.
This illustrates a primary problem with a Citizens Assembly: it is to some degree a competitor to the legislature, and puts the public in a position of challenging the executive, particularly if the test for the measure proposed is higher than the test for taking office. Thus a crisis of authority might result.
This has been a problem in California where propositions put to the public in referendum form have "tied the hands" of elected leaders, making it difficult to make decisions or re-allocate resources. And where hapless governors can be recalled for failing to do anything, despite not having power to do it. Having a Citizens Assembly might actually make this worse, as, expectations of action could be very high, and support for it high, but, at odds with the legislature.
Arm's length, or appointed by a government?
The first such potential conflict is in the assignment of people to an Assembly: people have to have time to serve on one, as they would on a jury or other volunteer body. Compensation can only partly make up for the lost time.
There are two options for managing a Citizens Assembly - 1) Appointing a separate body to create and administer the Assembly, or 2) creating a committee of elected politicians to establish and set base guidelines for the Citizens Assembly. While either mechanism could work, it is the rules guiding this managing committee that are important. Since such committees already exist, and there are clear rules for keeping them non-partisan and transparent, and, carries the weight of the powers of those elected, this latter (2) is probably more desirable.
"It would be responsible for setting the time-frame, scope, form of reporting and the overall administration of the process. The Committee will not have the authority to interfere with the research or recommendations proposed. The Committee will itself be open to audit or comments and evaluation."
Prior to forming a Citizens Assembly (CA), the Committee will study other CA’s (not only in the U.S. but in other countries, under whatever other names) "in order to learn from their experience, mistakes and functioning, and to create an assembly based on inclusiveness and fairness, which allows for the open analysis of a broad set of values reflecting the diversity of issues needing to be balanced when choosing an electoral structure. Some issues that may want to be considered during CA establishment and process 1) Full demographic representation of Assembly members 2) All experts and people in leadership roles within the Assembly should disclose their “favorite” system, as opposed to imposing a standard of professional neutrality 3) The role of public input should be clarified prior to the Assembly. It should be clear to both Assembly members and the public how this information is being assessed. 4) Since different values underlie different electoral systems and are often used in electoral assessment to guide the analysis, it is important that the guiding principles be chosen to reflect this diversity."
"For example, during recent electoral reform initiatives, there were a variety of criteria used to assess different electoral systems:"
Criteria applicable to electoral reform
Things citizens might reasonably ask, or do ask, about an electoral reform?
- Will those elected have a mandate and authority to actually govern?
- Will those who would have won under another system contest its legitimacy? (a major problem already with FPTP)
- Will it be difficult (or impossible) to put together a coalition or prevent a party from splintering to exploit minority coalition situations?
- Should parties have formal standing or only be involved to select candidates?
- Should parties be voted for, or against, separately from candidates for office?
(a feature of Mixed Member Proportional Representation electoral systems)
- Should representative recall, e.g. procedures to recall the Governor of California, or impeach the President of the United States, be possible for citizens to initiate?
- Should a referendum offer only one yes/no, or more than one choice, of a reformed system to the public?
- Should proposed reforms be confined to those already known to work elsewhere in the developed world? Anywhere in the world? Or could totally new schemes be considered?
- Is cost of administration or difficulty of understanding the counting procedure a factor in selecting or ruling out a system?
- Are allocation voting or approval voting or disapproval voting (all familiar from non-election contexts) valid to employ for electoral uses?
- To what degree should evidence from other jurisdictions guide the selection or consideration of systems?
Output of a comprehensive Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform
The BC CA published its index of submissions here
You can test the system that it eventually recommended to a referendum, here
The citizensassembly.bc.ca front page explains the process.
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