A Citizen's assembly is a panel of selected members of the
public, who deliberate on a particular subject or issue, and, with the help of
evidence and objective expert testimony, arrive at an informed decision. A
Citizen's assembly can vary in size (anything from a handful of people to an
assembly numbering in the hundreds or even the thousands), and could be formed
to deal with any kind of issue.
Often a Citizen’s Assembly is called upon as an option
because a subject is regarded as "toxic". This means that elected
officials would have a lot of trouble dealing with this issue effectively, as
controversial decisions that will harm their chances at the next election tend to be
shied away from. One example is the issue of abortion in Ireland: a Citizen's
Assembly was formed to deal with this, and it eventually recommended a referendum.
In Britain, the environmental pressure group Extinction Rebellion is currently
campaigning for a national Citizen's Assembly to deal with the issue of Climate
Change. There was even a Citizen's Assembly formed to deliberate upon Brexit,
though its recommendations were ignored.
It has been theorised that a Citizen's Assembly that is
called a "Multi-body Sortition" could be used to replace conventional
representative democracy as we know it and run a country.
How is a Citizen's Assembly Formed?
A Citizen's Assembly is formed by means of a process called
Sortition, which is a kind of random selection method. Think of it as something
not dissimilar to being chosen to do jury duty; or being chosen as a lottery
winner. Your name or you address, or some identifying signification will be
picked out, and you're in the Assembly!
If a Citizen's Assembly runs for a considerable length of
time, or has been formed to deal with more than one subject, its membership is
often "refreshed". Meaning some of its members will leave and other
members will join. But a whole Citizen's Assembly is never completely
refreshed. That is there is never a point where every single member of the
Assembly is replaced all at once - and so in this way, and through the use of
facilitators and subject expert advisors - continuity can be assured.
Is this a Revolutionary New Idea?
No, not at all. There were Citizen's Assemblies used in
ancient Greece, and apparently they even had a special machine which performed
the function of sortition and selected the people who would form the Citizen's
Assembly.
The
kleroterion - Sortition machine used in Ancient Greece
What are the advantages of a Citizen's Assembly?
Well, firstly a Citizen's Assembly is
truly representative. This is not the case in our modern conventional
democracy, where only those people on the electoral role get to vote. This
usually means that certain demographics - say those of a young age, or the
homeless, or refugees (often
referred to as “the 10% hard to reach”), will be under represented, while other demographics -
say, white middle class males - will be over represented.
A citizen's assembly can ensure that every demographic can
be represented in its proper proportions. Say 5% of your country or region's
population are females of Indonesian origin aged 20 - 30. That means 5% of the
Citizen's Assembly will be composed of that demographic.
Now, you may be asking yourself at this point, "Hold on
a minute, if Sortition is a process of choosing participants entirely at
random, then how could we guarantee a proportion like 5% of the Citizen's
Assembly being composed of females of Indonesian origin aged 20 - 30?"
There is a way! Keep reading!
Secondly, it is much less likely that a member of a Citizen's
Assembly will have a conflict of interest. This phenomenon is a stain on modern
parliamentary politics, and often politicians are accused of having a vested
interest in making sure that, say fossil fuel corporations, or certain
pharmaceutical companies will not suffer penalties or even have to pay taxes. A
good example of a conflict of interest is the fact that many British MP's are
also landlords that rent out multiple properties, meaning that it may not be in
their interests to pass laws that improve the rights of tenants. The
aforementioned process of regularly "refreshing" the Assembly members
also helps in this regard, as it prevents the build-up of power and vested
interest.
Thirdly, the fact that decisions are evidence based is a
perhaps the biggest advantage. Subject Matter Experts are used as advisers,
though they do not make pronouncements ("Experts on tap - not on
top"), and the findings and recommendations produced by the Citizen's
Assembly are informed and objective evidence based decisions ("Public
Judgement - not public opinion").
Random Stratified Sampling
The way we get a truly representative Citizen's Assembly is
through the method of stratification. This "weights" the random
sampling - or Sortition - procedure to ensure that the makeup of the Citizen's
Assembly is truly representative (or to put it another way, this is the way you
make sure that 5% of your Citizen's Assembly is composed of females of Indonesian
origin aged 20 - 30, if that is appropriate).
And this is where we come to Israel/Palestine, where the
stratification exercise would be a fascinating challenge.
Let's stratify!
Citizen's
Assembly Process Map
Holy Land Stratification
First, let's get 50% male, 50%
female.
Next we go 50% Israeli, 50%
Palestinian.
Then things start to get thorny -
religious splits. Across the Holy Land we must take the correct proportions of
Jewish, Muslim, and Christian citizens. Then also take the correct proportion
of those of other faiths and of no faith.
Then things get even more
complicated. For instance on the Palestinian side we must take the correct
proportions of those who live in Gaza and those who live on the West Bank. If
they are Muslim we must take the correct proportions of Sunni and Shia,
Khawarij and other schools of thought. Should we stratify further? In Gaza the
government is Hamas, but there are other factions present there also. Should
they be represented? Same with the West Bank, where Fatah by no means enjoy
blanket support.
Then we go to Israel, and we
stratify by Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Sephardic, Orthodox and other strata of the
Jewish population. We must also take the correct proportion of the
Palestinian-Israeli population, before we go to other groups like the Druze.
And we haven't even started on stratifying
by age groups, income ranges, suburban dwellers versus country dwellers, more
detailed ethnic compositions and so forth.
By now I'm sure you can see
things are getting involved, and I believe we would need a fairly large
Citizen's Assembly in order to get something like a correct representation of
the various factions and groups that live in this land of trauma.
A Question of Experts
This poses a potential roadblock
- not because there are no subject matter experts on the issue of Palestine and
Israel: there are many. However what we need are objective experts. Or should I
say, what we need are experts that are perceived to be objective. This is quite
a challenge considering we are talking about the most polarised of subjects.
A Question of Settlers
The illegal Israeli settlers who
occupy Palestine’s West Bank would be another potential stumbling block. Should they be
represented and given a say in a Citizen's Assembly? This is a problematic issue, since the presence of the settlers is illegal under international law
and they are widely viewed as one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the way
of any kind of peaceful outcome. Also, there is a strong chance that the settlers would not be interested in any kind of treaty that most of the world would view
as just and equitable, due to their absolutist stance.
Having said that, the point of a Citizen's Assembly is to bring together those who may have seemingly unbridgeable differences, so we should not abandon all hope at the start. And besides, solutions have been proposed that do take the presence of the settlers into account in a constructive manner.
Conclusion: The Need for a New Approach
For any of this to go
ahead, we would need to have the political will to search for a peaceful, just solution
to this conflict rooted in a deadly cocktail of quarrels over land, history,
politics and religion. Pushing for a solution does not seem to be in Israel's
interests at present, however, as it is sitting pretty with the backing of
America's government, which grants it such boons as the recognition of
Jerusalem as its capital while asking for nothing in return.
But ultimately - and even from
the start, going right back to the Balfour Declaration - this conflict is a
testament to how conventional politics has been and is still failing us. We
need fresh approaches to these seemingly intractable dilemmas.
Otherwise all we can do is carry
on looking the other way while our fellow human beings suffer and perish.
People were cheering in the streets today when, after weeks upon weeks of interminable deadlock broken only by recycled arguments over exactly the same issue, parliament voted to do something with regard to Brexit! The something was agreed by all factions in the debate and received an overwhelming cross party consensus!
It fell to Prime Minister Theresa May, wearing a smile as wide as the English Channel just at the point where it is widest, to deliver the good news in the House of Commons.
"Parliament will act now," she declared, "to deliver this vital something for everyone: it will be good for business, good for jobs, good for families and good for future prosperity. It will be good for an economy that is strong and stable.
"By the way Brexit means Brexit". She managed to hurriedly get in before she sat down. But by then everyone on both sides of the House were standing and hollering and waving bits of paper in approval. Then they checked with each other whether they were actually meant to be waving bits of paper in approval since it was so long since they'd actually approved of anything they'd forgotten what it is they were supposed to do.
Oh well done Theresa!
It then fell to opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to endorse the something proposed by Theresa May, which he happily did. "This something that Parliament has approved today, will be for the many," intoned Corbyn dramatically, "and yet at the same time it will also be for the few! It will be for everyone! How about that!"
This caused more rapturous applause, more waving of bits of paper on both sides of the House, and Chuka Umunna cried like a girl he was so happy.
Amidst the frivolity Speaker of the House John Bercow could be heard yelling "Order! Order!"
And then he could be heard yelling "Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps please!"
He was standing by the bar you see.
Smashing Job Jeremy!
Perhaps the most poignant moment of the day was when arch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg could be seen sharing a tender hug with hardcore Remainer Anna Soubry.
That was up until he tried to sneakily cop a feel and was rewarded with a punch in the whatsits for his troubles. But for a moment there, there was real love. And that should be our takeaway from the incident I believe.
Tomorrow, parliament will reconvene in order to decide what the something they have agreed to do actually is. At which point everything will probably turn to shit. Again.
But, ya know, for now, how about we just enjoy the moment, eh?
