Reporting from a citizens' assembly in an unlikely place: Few answers, more questions
(2024) Challenges of Plural Societies. IPSA Research Committees’ Colloquium — Location: Chisinau, Moldova (29.May.2024)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- Divided societies, characterised by strongly politicised segmentation, are often portrayed as unsuitable for deliberative citizen participation. Due to an assumed inability to engage in consensus-oriented debate, deliberative ideals are considered unrealisable. At the same time, the opening and de-regulation of the political space may seem paradoxical from a scientific perspective as it opens the risk for an increase in social tensions. Instead, political power in deeply divided contexts is often highly monopolised by the representatives of salient social segments. Nevertheless, we have observed a mushrooming of Citizens' Assemblies across the globe and, more importantly, in the unlikeliest of places. The paper presents findings from the 1st National Citizens' Assembly in Kosovo as well as additional, contextual observations from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Discussing both the potential and the risks of a Citizens' Assembly in deeply divided contexts, it proposes a four-dimensional research agenda: (i) an elite-based approach to understanding whether and why power is de-concentrated; (ii) a participant-based approach to attitudinal changes; (iii) an international perspective that analyses the changing agenda of actors towards democracy support as a resolution of political deadlock in deeply divided societies; (iv) a Bottom-Up approach to make sense of reconciliatory practices as a crucial, contextual element. By doing so, the paper opens up an additional pathway for scholars of deliberative democracy to analyse citizen participation not as a product of elite decision-making, but as a model within a broader political context of societal contestation.
- Affiliations
Citations
Sautter, A.-M. (2024). Reporting from a citizens’ assembly in an unlikely place: Few answers, more questions. Challenges of Plural Societies. IPSA Research Committees’ Colloquium, Chisinau, Moldova. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/248575