Marjan H. Ehsassi, Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy (FIDE) – North America and a participant in the upcoming Athens Democracy Forum, offers a hopeful vision through the transformative power of citizens’ assemblies. Drawing on years of experience bridging citizens and government, Ehsassi reveals how these deliberative democratic processes can mend fractured social contracts, counter polarization, and empower ordinary people to shape the policies that affect their lives—offering a vital blueprint for democratic renewal in a precarious world.
In an era marked by rising far-right movements and geopolitical tensions, how can citizens’ assemblies and deliberative democracy serve as tools to rebuild trust and counter polarization within societies?
The beauty of Citizens’ Assemblies (CA) is that at their core they are pluralistic. They are designed to bring different voices to the table, hone active listening skills and promote empathy and tolerance. As such, they counter polarization and division. When a CA is designed and implemented well, the focus remains on solving public problems and finding common ground.
The untold story of Citizens’ Assemblies is that they have the potential to repair trust across four distinct relationships:
- People’s trust in government
- Government’s trust in citizens
- People’s trust in other citizens; and perhaps most importantly:
- People’s trust in themselves
Given the increasing influence of misinformation and distrust in democratic institutions worldwide, do you believe deliberative models are equipped to address these challenges effectively?
Citizens’ Assemblies are not a silver bullet. However, the learning phase of an assembly is one of the features that drew me to these processes six years ago when I began my journey into CAs.
One third of every CA, whether over 6 weekends or 9 weekends is dedicated to learning about the issue, be that homelessness, climate or the end of life. This means that before people start disagreeing or debating with one another, they learn together. They listen to experts, community stakeholders and those with lived experience, and learn. It is a remarkable experience and see the changes in some of their perspectives. Some participants come in resolute, they know what they believe in and they will not change their positions. But most listen and begin to ask questions. They may not change their position entirely, but they consider the evidence presented, question their position, refine their thinking.
The curation of evidence is a complicated process and we can spend hours talking about how to try and get them right. However, at the end of a CA, participants not only have much higher levels of understanding in the topic but also a deeper knowledge of government, policy making and the tradeoffs and compromises necessary for decision-making.
Many democratic systems are currently under significant stress. How can democratic innovation, particularly through citizen participation, help resist democratic erosion and respond to global geopolitical uncertainties?
There are three important ways that Citizens’ Assemblies can help:
- I believe that at the heart of our democratic deficits is the frayed relationship between citizens and government. Our social contracts are weak and there is little trust. CAs get to the heart of this and, when government-championed, we hold the elected accountable for taking participants proposals seriously. In my opinion, citizens want to be heard and want their input to be meaningful. When government does this, trust is rebuild and the relationship between people and their government can slowly be repaired.
- We need to get people from different backgrounds and communities together in one room. Given that they are more extensive than most engagement and dialogue processes, CAs build communities and create social cohesion.
- Finally, and this is an important point, CAs go beyond dialogue. I believe people are looking for platforms that allow them to come together to collectively solve public problems. It’s true that we need to talk to each other more across our differences, but we also need concrete outcomes. CAs offer participants an opportunity to work together to address pressing social problems by proposing consensus-driven policy proposals. CAs bring people together with government and help us put the public in public policy.
How do you see the role of Citizens’ Assemblies evolving in countries facing deep political divides and geopolitical challenges? Are they realistic mechanisms for fostering dialogue in such environments?
I am not suggesting that Citizens’ Assemblies are the only solution. They must be part of a larger reform toolkit. But the answer to your question is a resounding yes. As I describe above, Citizens’ Assemblies don’t just foster dialogue they address the root of our democratic deficits. They go deep by bringing citizens together with government and holding government accountable.
You’ve worked extensively across North America and Europe. How do regional differences—especially regarding the rise of nationalist and far-right forces—impact the design and success of deliberative democratic processes?
I think there are some important considerations here. For one, it is important that government support is genuine and that the process is not co-opted by strongmen (or women). One of the key elements of a CA is that we use sortition to bring a representative sampling of the population together. Sortition must remain a key component of every CA. Government bodies that try to avoid this risk designing legitimate processes.
Another important consideration is that the topic truly be recognized by the population is a priority. Otherwise, you have what we call participatory whitewashing. At FIDE – North America, we believe that to the extent possible people should have a say in the selection of the remit.
Finally, there are times, when it is not possible to work with certain bodies of government. Our current in the US, is at the local level an the state level. We are working with Mayors, City Managers and are launching a new program designed for Governors.
Political leaders often hesitate to share real decision-making power with ordinary citizens. What is your message to those leaders, especially in the context of the current geopolitical landscape and the threats posed by extremist ideologies?
What do you have to lose? How can any of this get worse? We often talk about people’s lack of trust in government. One of the lesser told stories of our age is that the real problem is that government does not trust people. I often say that instead of measuring the health of our democracies by people’s trust in their leaders, we should begin to measure the trust (or lack thereof) of our leaders in their people.
Leaders need to trust and rely on their constituents. They need to be more accessible to them, partner and share decision making with them. It’s the only way out of this unfortunate place that we’re in.
