Citizens’ assemblies and the crisis of democracy

For decades, citizens’ assemblies (CAs) have served as one of the remedies
that scholars have advocated and decision-makers have employed in their efforts to overcome the crisis of representative democracy. In the back-and-forth between CA promoters and critical evaluators, the recent discourse around CAs follows a familiar pattern recurring since the 1970s. The chapter argues that a systemic approach is necessary to fully understand the potential and limitations of CAs for remedying the crisis of democracy. The chapter makes this case in relation to four sets of mini-public methods and draws the conclusion that the degree to which arenas for citizen deliberations contribute to overcoming the democratic crisis hinges on how they are integrated in the larger democratic process. Institutionalizing such arenas as competitors to formal
representative assemblies will tend to weaken representative democracy further,
whereas building productive synergies between them will enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of representative democracy.