CAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT BE DONE BETTER?

Posted on November 23, 2015 by The Constitution Unit

There has been growing interest in the idea of staging a ‘people’s’ constitutional convention in the UK over recent years, but little evidence for how one could work in practice. With this in mind a group of academics recently convened two pilot citizens’ assemblies in Sheffield and Southampton. The Unit’s own Alan Renwick, who was involved in running the Sheffield assembly, draws out eight lessons from two highly successful weekends.

Interest has been strong for over a year in the creation of a ‘people’s’ constitutional convention to examine some of the major questions of governance and democracy that face the UK today.  I have pushed the case myself, as have many other academics, politicians, and activists.

This debate has drawn so far mainly on examples from other countries.  Now, however, we have some home-grown evidence to learn from.  I am part of a group – including also academics from the Universities of Sheffield, Southampton, and Westminster and a team from the Electoral Reform Society, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council – who recently convened two pilot citizens’ assemblies to test out how the model of a citizens’ assembly works in the UK. .................. Click here to read the full article

CONTENTS

1. Regular citizens are capable of high-quality deliberation. 
2. Quality reflection takes time. 
3.  Small-group discussion is where most of the deepest thinking happens. 
4.  Downtime is essential too. 
5.  Good table facilitators are key. 
6.  Organisers need to be nimble. 
7. Recruitment must be handled with care. 
8. Assembly members deserve pampering. 

•  About the author Dr Alan Renwick is the Deputy Director of The Constitution Unit and was Assembly North’s Academic Director. Share this: TwitterFacebook34RedditEmail Related Designing a Constitutional Convention for the UK: Getting the details right really matters In "Devolution" Imagining a constitutional convention for the UK In "Events" Considering a constitutional convention for Scotland In "Scottish Independence" This entry was posted in Devolution, Other and tagged Alan Renwick, citizens' assembly, constitutional convention, public engagement, Sheffield. Bookmark the permalink. Post navigation← Votes at 16: What effect would it have on the EU referendum?Northern Ireland’s ‘Fresh Start’ agreement will bring short term stability but does not itself resolve the underlying problems → One thought on “Do citizens’ assemblies work in practice? Eight lessons from a pilot” 

November 23, 2015 

Peter Bryant says: Getting the commitment from citizens for such processes is very difficult. Why would it not be? Why would we expect citizens, who are understandably very cynical of our politicians, to want to take part in such initiatives? My experience of having run over twenty Citizens Juries over the past ten years is that (like all of us) people need incentives. Often these incentives are to get people through the door. We are currently running the Wirral Alcohol Inquiry and are recruiting for 20 residents to attend nine evening sessions. Last Thursday as we walked the streets in the rain to randomly recruit people (supplementing the letter drop) the thing that grabbed peoples attention the most was the offer of a £20 voucher for each session that they attend. Once through the door they realise there are many many more incentives on offer, making new friends, feeling more part of the community, feeling they can make a difference, something to do etc. time and time again some of the participants have said to us ‘actually I’ve decided I don’t want the voucher please use it to help make sure the recommendations become a reality’. The danger of not offering such incentives (and child care etc) is that such processes become dominated by the 60+ white middle classes who then find it difficult to not engage in othering when discussing complex social issues. 

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