How to assemble a Citizens' Assembly: a guide!
?? Readers of this newsletter might be familiar with recent Citizens’ Assemblies?launched by governments?—?but did you know that other institutions can apply the core principles of?participation, representation by lottery, and deliberation?to achieve democratic outcomes? Our goal at DemocracyNext is to not only encourage public authorities from?Mexico?to?Belgium?to hold more assemblies, but to reseach and explore how this democratic paradigm can be applied in the economy, urban planning, companies, unions, museums and more.
To that end, we want to share that our new?Assembling an Assembly Guide?will go live on our website in July—we’re excited about it! This richly detailed, illustrated webpage will walk visitors through the?key design elements and principles to run a successful Citizens’ Assembly, and suggest ways for anyone to go about initiating an assembly process and adapting it to one’s own community or context.?
In the meantime, we want to hear from you! As we work to finalize this page, we would greatly welcome comments below or messages from readers at?[email protected]?to share what questions you have about assemblies and what you would look for in such a guide.?
If we do our job right, the Assembling an Assembly Guide will serve as an in-depth resource for people around the world, in much the same way that the?OECD Catching the Deliberative Wave report, written by the DemNext founding team, has become a touchstone, translated into multiple languages! They are called Citizens’ Assemblies, after all, because citizens—all of us—are the ones who ultimately must be empowered to co-create (i.e. assemble) them, together.
?? In related news, DemocracyNext’s new website is now online! Check it out:?https://demnext.org.
Huge thanks to the development team at Berlin-based?Village One, who did an oustanding job translating our unique vision into reality. We’re also grateful to French artist?Adèle Vivet?for her distinctive illustrations of the current and future democratic paradigms, and to?studio Yukiko?for developing the site design and visual identity.?
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The DemocracyNext website is organized into the following sections, which we encourage you to explore:
We’ll continue to publish news and commentary?here on Substack?of course, but we’re quite happy to have a full-fledged website, so if you like what you see, please share it with your friends, family or colleagues. And stay tuned for the Assembly Guide coming next.
?? A must-read on AI:?Randomly-selected citizens can and should be utilized now in the efforts to regulate artificial intelligence. But don’t just take our word for it. DemNext Strategic Advisor Hélène Landemore has published an op-ed, co-authored with researcher Andrew Sorota and Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang, showing how it is possible:
We believe a global, democratic approach–not an exclusively technocratic one–is the only adequate answer to what is a global political and ethical challenge. Sam Altman himself stated in an?earlier interview?that in his “dream scenario,”?a global deliberation involving all humans?would be used to figure out how to govern A.I.
There are already proofs of concept for the various elements that a global, large-scale deliberative process would require in practice. By drawing on these diverse and complementary examples, we can turn this dream into a reality.
Builder of human+digital learning ecosystems
1 年Citizens' Assemblies to govern AI are a revolutionary idea but a long-term journey. We can't bolt on the concepts of citizenship and governance established for the analog world. First, we must establish citizenship directly inside the digital realm. The technology and practices necessary to claim our rights as citizens have yet to arrive but are on the horizon. This begins with #datadignity. This is bigger than AI. It is the revolution to end the Age of #Technofeudalism. #wethepeople
Civil/Utility Engineer I - City of Port Angeles, Public Works
1 年The site looks great. I'm looking forward to reading through your guide!