Deliberation in Fragile Democracies: Citizens' Assemblies in Georgia

• In Event: Divided Times: Deliberative Democracy in Post Conflict & Polarised Societies

Abstract

In countries where representative democracy is weak or underdeveloped, deliberative mini-publics, such as citizens' assemblies, could serve as schools of democracy, socializing and training citizens in civic engagement and self-governance. Our project explores some of the main outcomes of implementing citizens' assemblies in Georgia, a nation where democracy is yet to fully take root and where there’s low public trust in political institutions and a lack of institutionalized channels for civic participation. Our empirical focus is the citizens' assemblies in Rustavi and Ozurgeti dedicated to urban governance matters. We draw on interviews with assembly organizers and participants as well as with local authorities. We borrow our theoretical framework from the social movements literature and discuss the political opportunity structure that facilitated the adoption of deliberative processes in Georgia, as a case study of a country with a weak democratic tradition. Using the same framework, we also assess the impact of these deliberative processes and the role of the international actors promoting and financing such initiatives on participants' perceptions of civic engagement, local governance, and trust-building. We argue that these assemblies have had a positive democratizing impact, socializing participants, engendering longer-term civic initiative, and building trust in a society where such traditions are underdeveloped. Our research contributes to the literature on deliberative democracy in general and in fragile democracies in particular and sheds light on an important for scholars and policymakers question about how to train a democratically minded citizenry before democracy has developed or taken root.

Authors

• Paulina Pospieszna, Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan

• Tsveta Petrova, Columbia University