Citizens’ Democracy is a networking organization for deliberative democracy initiatives in Switzerland. Together we are creating a new understanding of politics and democracy by designing, implementing, promoting and evaluating Citizens’ Assemblies.
Citizens’ assemblies ? Citizens’ assemblies are a form of deliberative democracy: instead of being elected, the members of the assembly are randomly selected from the population they are to represent. This allows for balanced deliberation and representation, leading to independent, transparent and long-term oriented decision-making. The assembly consults with experts and stakeholders to reach a conclusion in moderated discussions on various topics. The conclusions may take the form of recommendations or feed into the legislative process.
News
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2022 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy
The Global Forum, the world’s largest gathering devoted to participatory and direct democracy, will be held from September 21 to 25, 2022, in the beautiful lakeside city of Lucerne, Switzerland. After 14 years, the Global Forum returns to the country where it all began in 2008 with the Aarau Forum. Coming out of a devastating … Read more
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Citizens Assemblies in times of crisis
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research: “Citizens Assemblies in times of crisis” Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research invites researchers to submit their papers for the special issue Citizens Assemblies in times of crisis. Citizens’ assemblies and other sortition-based participation methods are trending around the world. As a means to involve … Read more
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Poland: Warsaw climate-panel implementation report published
This is a report on the Warsaw Climate Panel, a citizens’ jury devoted to increasing energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy sources in the city. Panel meetings were attended by 90 randomly selected people — different in terms of gender, age, place of residence and education. They were accompanied by city officials, experts … Read more