How the Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland Works

On Friday, we invite you to a reading group and discussion of the article
“Systematizing Constitutional Deliberation: the 2016–18 Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland,”
which provides a detailed description of the structure and functioning of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly — one of the key examples of institutionalized public dialogue in the 21st century.

Our focus will be less on the political outcomes and more on the process itself: how participants were selected, how facilitation was organized, how experts and expert groups worked, who prepared the materials, and how deliberation was “systematized” — transformed from a one-time experiment into a reproducible democratic procedure.

The article is unique in that it allows us to literally “take the assembly apart piece by piece”: from its organizational framework and distribution of roles to the logic of discussions, formulation of recommendations, and interaction with political institutions.

The reading group will be useful for those interested in dialogue under conditions of polarization, citizens’ assemblies, and facilitation of complex conversations. It is also relevant for anyone seeking working models of democratic processes that go beyond elections and public debates.

The session will be led by Bella Alexander @bella.alexandr93 — lawyer, political and eco-activist, manager of the Rational Reading Club, and co-organizer of a project aimed at developing dialogue in society.