Citizens’ Assemblies and Mini-Publics – serie

Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) are flourishing around the world. Quite often composed of randomly selected citizens, CAs, arguably, come as a possible answer to contemporary democratic challenges. Democracies worldwide are indeed confronted with a series of disruptive phenomena such as a widespread perception of distrust and growing polarization as well as low performance. Many actors seek to reinvigorate democracy with citizen participation and deliberation. CAs are expected to have the potential to meet this twofold objective. But, despite deliberative and inclusive qualities of CAs, many questions remain open. The increasing popularity of CAs call for a holistic reflection and evaluation on their origins, current uses and future directions. The De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies showcases the state of the art around the study of CAs and opens novel perspectives informed by multidisciplinary research and renewed thinking about deliberative participatory processes. It discusses the latest theoretical, empirical, and methodological scientific developments on CAs and offers a unique resource for scholars, decision-makers, practitioners, and curious citizens to better understand the qualities, purposes, promises but also pitfalls of CAs.

Climate Assemblies are capturing the imagination of people interested in how citizens can participate in decision-making to address the climate and ecological crisis. Traditional institutions are struggling to cope with the challenges of a climate-changed world. Climate Assemblies are new civic institutions that include a cross-section of the public in deliberation to influence environmental policy, governance, public discourse and collective action. With the rapid spread of this approach to public engagement, practice has developed well in advance of research. This book addresses that gap by analysing the internal and external dimensions of climate assemblies and how they interact. It brings together 25 authors to offer novel perspectives, critical insights and practical reflections based on original research about paradigmatic cases at local, national, transnational and global levels. The book investigates the state of the field, reflects on the hope and hype about this growing phenomenon, and proposes ways to improve climate assemblies so that they can make a difference in a climate-changed world.