Citizens Assemblies in Democratic Decision-Making: Fundamental Challenges and Ways Forward

This chapter examines the role of citizens’ assemblies (CAs) in democratic decision-making, highlighting in particular the challenges they face. As deliberative mini-publics, CAs aim to enhance public participation while avoiding the constraints of electoral politics and uninformed decision-making. They rely on random selection to approximate representativeness and provide structured deliberation processes to generate informed policy recommendations. However, CAs encounter significant obstacles related to legitimacy, effectiveness, and political influence. The chapter evaluates CAs based on input, throughput, and output legitimacy criteria, identifying key issues such as biases in participant selection, facilitator influence, and the risk of political instrumentalization. Additionally, the complexity of policy issues, group polarization, and consensus-driven decision-making can impact the quality and applicability of CA recommendations. Most critically, CAs often struggle to achieve meaningful policy influence, with their recommendations frequently sidelined or used symbolically rather than substantively. To address these challenges, the chapter explores potential reforms, including greater institutionalization of CAs within governance structures, clearer selection and facilitation protocols, and mechanisms for ensuring their decisions carry weight in policymaking. While CAs hold significant promise for enhancing democratic governance, their long-term success depends on resolving these fundamental issues.