Beyond Polarisation and Polls: Citizens’ Assemblies that live up to OECD good practice principles

Across the Nordic countries, Citizens’ Assemblies are increasingly used to strengthen democratic participation and legitimacy.

Today, political decisions are often made under pressure from special interests, polarised debates, declining trust between citizen and politicians and short-term opinion polling, weakening the links among citizens and between citizens and their representatives. With the decline of citizens participation, we lose something vital: spaces where broad and diverse groups of citizens can deliberate on what they collectively find fair and desirable. Citizens Assemblies re-introduce these spaces and places citizens to the center of decision-making processes creating an open and transparent government.

In this Nordic Deliberation Learning Call, we step back and ask a foundational question: How can well-designed deliberative processes strengthen trust and democratic ties, improve the quality of decisions, and renew democratic legitimacy?

Join us for a morning of introduction to the OECD principles for deliberative processes and shared exploration of the transformative potential of Citizens’ Assemblies in the Nordic landscape.

The session is open to all and especially relevant for you, if you are an academic, a public servant, or a democracy professional seeking a clear, grounded introduction to Citizens’ Assemblies as a democratic innovation: when to use them, how they work, and what makes them robust.

Hosted by the partners of the Nordic Deliberation Network: SoCentral (Norway), Sitra (Finland), We Do Democracy (Denmark), and Digidem Lab (Sweden).