Designing a permanent deliberative citizens assembly: The Ostbelgien Modell in Belgium

Worldwide, there is an increasing number of calls for institutionalizing deliberative democracy. The Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium has paved the way in this direction by unanimously adopting a model for permanent citizen deliberation. It consists in a permanent Citizens’ Council drawn by lot, which can initiate Citizens’ Assemblies, also drawn by lot, whose mission it is to deliberate and formulate recommendations on the subject that the Citizens’ Council had submitted to them. At the end of the deliberations, the recommendations are discussed in a joint committe... Mehr ...