Workshop: Democratic Leadership + Christoph Niessen

Worskshop: Democratic Leadership

More Details TBD soon. This event may be subject to modifications in schedule and content.

Institutionalizing citizen deliberation in Belgium: Who participates? What do participants make of it? And what does the broader public think?

by Christoph Niessen

To regain public trust in governance, decision-makers around the world make increasing use of new forms of citizen participation that aim at giving citizens a greater say in policy-making. Among these so-called ‘democratic innovations’, deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) – i.e. gatherings of lay-citizens deliberating before formulating policy recommendations – have received particular attention. In response to criticisms about the limited institutional connection and follow-up of ad hoc DMPs, some political institutions even went as far as to institutionalize DMPs, i.e. to embed them within regular political institutions, such as parliament. Proponents hope that this institutionalization will make DMPs politically more consequential and, in turn, let them be seen by both participants and the broader public as credible means of participation. The verdict on whether these hopes hold, however, is still out. In this talk, I use empirical evidence collected among the participants and the broader citizenry for three Belgian cases of institutionalized citizen deliberation: the Mixed Deliberative Committees in the Regions of Brussels and Wallonia, as well as the Permanent Citizens’ Dialogue in Eastbelgium. I use this evidence to answer three questions: (1) Who participates in institutionalized citizen deliberation? (2) What effect does institutionalized citizen deliberation have on participants? (3) What does the broader citizenry think of institutionalized citizen deliberation?

Bio

Christoph Niessen is a postdoctoral researcher in comparative politics, working on the institutionalization and public reception of democratic innovations, as well as on multi-level governance and on the determinants of sub-state autonomy demands and conferral.