Citizens’ assemblies need strong design as well as four other essential ingredients to be really effective, according to Irish expert Art O’Leary, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission of Ireland and former Secretary General to the President of Ireland.
Mr O’Leary, who has headed six citizens’ assemblies in Ireland, and has shared his lessons with 85 countries, was speaking at a packed-out Ledra Palace last Thursday 22 October, organised by the Cyprus Peace and Dialogue Centre (CPDC) with the support of the Embassy of Ireland.
He noted that that most of the design work is done “before a single citizen sets foot inside a room”.
“Most of the citizens assemblies around the world which failed, failed at the design stage. Because people didn't pay enough attention to designing a process that suits your culture, that suits your politics and makes it easy for your citizens to be involved,” Mr O’Leary said.
Citizens’ assemblies take place when a broad, representative cross-section of voters are given the time, space and resources to think about difficult policy questions and make recommendations to their political leaders.
Mr O’Leary spoke of four essential ingredients for an effective assembly.
Essential ingredient 1: “Ireland in one room”. The first is that the participants are truly representative of the population. This requires a long, professionally run process and various forms of financial and childcare support for those who take part.
Essential ingredient 2: clear question with many possible solutions. The question on which the assembly will deliberate needs to be clear, accessible and meaningful to voters. It also needs something which the political leaders have not been able to solve themselves and which has many possible answers. At the same time, it needs to be defined in such a way that participants do not come out with unworkable or unaffordable solutions.
Essential ingredient 3: 100% clarity about what will happen to the recommendations. Politicians need to commit from the start about what they will do with the proposals. For example, they might commit in advance to a formal discussion in parliament, to draft legislation or hold a referendum. Mr O’Leary warned that raising expectations by asking the citizens, but then dashing those expectations by ignoring them, can lose the trust of an entire generation.
Essential ingredient 4: political courage. Last but not least, political courage is needed. Mr O’Leary admitted that he and the Irish prime minister at the time were initially sceptical. But when support for highly sensitive topics in the assembly matched the ultimate support in a referendum, he was convinced.
Fiona Mullen, who is working with CPDC as a technical expert on the C-Up project, said: “I don’t think it is any accident that Ireland has a higher-than-average trust in political parties, parliament and government according to Eurobarometer surveys. They have put their trust in citizens, and citizens have reciprocated with higher trust in politicians. It is a win-win for everyone.”
Mr O’Leary’s visit is timely, as it comes shortly after the formation of the Steering Committee on Civil Society Engagement under UN auspices, which is expected to engage a randomly selected cross-section of citizens on aspects of the negotiations to solve the longstanding Cyprus problem. CPDC’s citizens’ assembly initiative, which is known as C-Up, is separate but supportive of the official track.
Dr Meltem Onurkan-Samani, Founder of CPDC, said: “Our experience in Cyprus has taught us that political negotiations and civil society efforts cannot succeed in isolation from one another. We need a peace process that combines political leadership with meaningful citizen participation.”
