Citizen Deliberation: Is It Possible with Major Inequalities?

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

The ongoing deliberative wave continues to reach new regions, marked by the emergence of citizens' assemblies, deliberative polling, and various democratic innovations across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
The roundtable aims to explore whether inequality significantly influences the adoption and implementation of democratic innovations. This inquiry questions the applicability of a democratic innovation model, originating in Europe and North America, to countries dealing with notably higher levels of inequality. Despite extensive work by deliberative democrats on the implications of the innovations they endorse, the profound impact of substantial inequalities on these practices remains inadequately addressed.
The roundtable will focus on three challenging questions:
Budgets: Can we effectively conduct citizen deliberation with limited budgets, such as those prevalent in most parts of the world outside Europe? Should this concern us?
Learning and Deliberation: What are the impacts of inequality on the learning component of deliberation? Does illiteracy make a difference, or can all the relevant information be conveyed by video? Is the deliberation component affected by the dramatic differences among participants in status, knowledge, and self-confidence? Are our normative criteria context-dependent?
The Forum-System Link: Will the elites in economically challenged countries accept the deliberations of truly representative citizen assemblies, composed predominantly of individuals from lower-income segments? (A hypothetical: Would Northern publics extend credibility to assemblies with such high proportions of low-income citizens?)
The roundtable seeks to foster connections between academics and practitioners in the field of democratic innovations for an in-depth discussion on this pressing issue. Representatives from three major networks actively engaged in the field -- Democracy R&D, Glocan, and the OECD -- will participate. The roundtable includes Nicole Curato (University of Canberra) co-lead of Glocan, who will explore whether current versions of deliberative democracy primarily benefit the affluent. Mauricio Mejía, who leads the democratic innovations unit at the OECD, will present new data encompassing the global deliberative wave, with a focus on Global South countries and variations in design characteristics and budgets. Hélène Landemore (Yale University) will share insights drawn from her recent experiences with French citizens' assemblies. Alice Siu (Stanford University) will comment on deliberative polling in Africa. Adele Webb (University of Canberra) will reflect on the potential for indigenous deliberation in Australia. Felipe Rey (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), co-lead of Democracy R&D, will discuss the implications for deliberative assemblies of the debate surrounding democratic colonization and will share insights from new innovations in Latin America.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Democratic Innovations

Chair

• Jane Mansbridge Harvard Kennedy School

Presenters

• Felipe Rey Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

• Helene E. Landemore Yale University

• Alice Siu Stanford University

• Adele Webb University of Canberra

• Mauricio Mejia OECD