Representation in a Global Citizens’ Assembly

• In Event: Can Deliberative Democracy Scale—Globally?

Abstract

Why global citizen deliberation? We argue that the key role for such deliberation – organized in a forum such as a Global Citizens’ Assembly (GCA) — is not in simulating any global democratic decision or providing information on the frequency distribution of global public opinion, but rather in in generating crucial insight on public values to improve public discourse on key global governance issues. That is, we envisage a GCA that speaks to, rather than for, the global public. Impact should be sought on public discourse, global deliberative capacity, and (ultimately) collective decisions made globally, nationally, or regionally. This applies particularly to anticipatory issues where there is little public discussion to build upon. If the GCA is to be deliberation-making (or meaning-making) in this sense, we believe a nuanced approach to representation is warranted, which focusses on maximising deliberative potential — where diverse public realities, values, and aspirations may productively engage with each other, informed by the best available knowledge. Our response to this challenge involves what we call ‘3D+A representation.’ This combines developmental, discursive, demographic, and affectedness aspects. The developmental aspect involves recruiting participants from lay citizen deliberative processes that have been held at the national level (to ameliorate the hazards of bringing citizens cold to a complex set of global issues). The discursive aspect involves ensuring that the range of existing relevant discourses in the global public sphere gets reflected, in both participant selection and the testimonies that participants hear. The demographic aspect involves capturing diversity in relevant social, geographical and cultural characteristics, rather than statistical representativeness. The affectedness aspect involves recruiting from those likely to be most affected by the issue in question (so on climate change, representation should be sought from small island states). A path to composition of the GCA can be created that involves iterating and learning as it is charted (rather than specifying a recipe at the outset). We illustrate our arguments through reference to a developed proposal for a GCA on genome editing that would be organized in conjunction with a series of documentary films to perform transmission in a deliberative system. The issue provides a compelling opportunity because it currently features a global governance vacuum for a technology that promises vast benefits to humanity, but also substantial risks

Authors

• John S. Dryzek, University of Canberra

• Simon J. Niemeyer, University of Canberra