mourning The disappearance of democracy In the EU, former Greek finance minister Yannis Varoufakis recently said he was not going to give up and give up on European democracy – although he admitted: “I'm not going to convince anyone that EU electoral politics is worth the effort. I have to convince myself.”
Varoufakis is not alone here. Declining faith in democracy and trust in political institutions is part of it A global trend, also affects the EU. This is because electoral politics often seem empty, petty and demoralizing, as Varoufakis himself can surely attest. So how do we move to a vision that replaces this bitterness with hope?
We can start with what is the problem with the EU: under the current system of governance, the power of citizens is very limited. The message of the chairman of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is disturbing On the state of the European Union in 2023 “Democracy” was mentioned only once. However, it is democracy that must be the basis for any political achievement. Von der Leyen was proud of his work in energy, labor, agriculture and other sectors. But even if we welcome the actions he mentions, there is still a risk that they will remain unappreciated, undermined or even destroyed unless they are democratically strengthened and recognized.
“New impetus for democracyIt is indeed one of the most important priorities set by the European Commission for the coming year. The EU has already recognized that citizens are insufficiently involved and empowered in governance. We must finally move from words to action – and before it's too late.
Assembly of European Citizens
in a new article published by European University Institute A group of specialists presents a framework for action: a rationale and outline for the creation of a European Citizens' Assembly (I am a co-author of this text). The ideas presented by us are in harmony with the ideas proposed by French and German scientists Institutionalized Citizens' Assemblies – However, our proposal is more ambitious. The European Citizens' Assembly will be a new political body embodying citizens' power and debate, co-governing with the other EU institutions: the European Council, the Commission and the European Parliament.
Creating a new branch of government is not a joke. However, such an assembly is needed because in the systemic undermining of the value of democracy itself – and its definition – the stakes are high. If citizens are stripped of real power, if they don't have a real voice in the big decisions that affect us in these tumultuous times, the European political system will sink completely into apathy and cynicism, sending us deeper into the spiral. The decline of democratic governance.
The European Citizens' Assembly would be a transformative force. First, it will connect all European citizens directly and horizontally. Such a civil society formed across national borders goes far beyond the dominant, narrow understanding of “citizenship” based solely on the possession of a passport. To ensure the representativeness of such a body, the continent-wide assembly includes randomly selected representatives by lot, a procedure whose effectiveness has already been proven both in theory and practice.
Elections by lot take place in two stages: random selection, in which individuals are invited to participate in the assembly, and stratification, which aims to ensure representation of the entire population, based on the techniques used in public opinion polls.
Such a process allows for the selection of a representative and diverse cross-section of ordinary people—a different type of representation than in elections where individuals are usually chosen from the upper and middle classes. Can a few hundred citizens selected by lot and participating in the Assembly on a rotating basis be “representative” of five hundred million citizens of 27 (at least) countries? This would be possible if both the draw and the debate they led were made public in a radically transparent way.
The assembly must be a permanent body, because only one can avoid bias and manual control of when and how such assemblies are held, while promising to gain knowledge and status over time that will be understood by the general citizenry.
The European Citizens' Assembly will strengthen the common sense of democratic equality in Europe, as the main ethos of the draw is equality of opportunity. Elections by lot give ordinary people of all professions an equal chance to become representatives – no such chance exists in the traditional electoral system, which is monopolized by politicians and parties. Members of the Assembly would have the right to take time off work to fulfill their civic duties: they would receive appropriate remuneration for this period and would not have to pay childcare or transport costs.
The argument for strengthening democratic equality is particularly important in the EU, as some of its member states, and therefore their citizens, are perceived as more equal than others. In a citizens' assembly, a German worker or a Latvian teacher may feel that they are closer to a Spanish worker or an Irish teacher. than with the “elite” representative from his own country.
Avoiding state capture
Impartiality is also key in all of this because despite good intentions, politicians and technocrats are always perceived as biased. The European Citizens' Assembly will not be associated with any political party, and randomly selected citizens will not have to care about their political careers or the interests of any party. There would be no time to trap them in the net of special interests, lobbyists or factions; They will be less susceptible to corrupting influences than professional bureaucrats or politicians. And also – how he wrote Hugh Pope, who observes such bodies in France – a lack of initial knowledge of a given topic can lead to a deeper debate on it throughout the assembly.
Taking into account not only the procedural but also the objective understanding of democracy, we know that one of the biggest threats to it is the capture of the state by powerful interest groups. At the EU level, lobbyists have enormous influence, and corruption scandals further undermine citizens' trust in government. Citizens, for whom participation in the Assembly will not be a milestone in their political career, will be more candid and more open to discussing the perspective of both the country and the Union as a whole.
The European Citizens' Assembly can uniquely embody “epistemic democracy”, which involves expressing different worldviews and confronting them under almost ideal conditions: high-quality debate and moderation, broad information provided by all parties, clash of conflicting opinions. Plenary sessions of the Assembly included small group discussions, inclusive and reciprocal listening, and joint decision-making by qualified majority or consensus.
In such circumstances, more is smarter. Citizens' gatherings, as shown, are over 600 examples Documented by the OECD and more recently in France and Belgium, it creates the conditions in which our collective intelligence emerges. This is even more true in situations involving different political cultures and language barriers, with even greater diversity. The European Citizens' Assembly will enable a debate on local, regional, national and transnational identities – a debate that goes beyond national pockets and the Brussels bubble.
The idea of self-government, within which each citizen can imagine themselves governed and subject to them during their lifetime, is the oldest argument for the creation of bodies chosen by lot – but also the most difficult argument. Reality in the context of the complexity of modern state building and governments. However, the European Citizens' Assembly, operating in parallel with other EU bodies, was a deeply democratic method to reduce social differences in the distribution of power in Europe – and thus prevent the monopolization of power by a group of professionals: politicians, bureaucrats, judges. and experts.
This is the central question of our time: What kind of democratic renewal do we need to survive the existential transformations—environmental, social, digital, and geopolitical—that we face? The EU has a crucial role to play in answering this question, both as a laboratory and as a leading player on the global stage.
This is no time for pessimism. It's time for bold experiments and citizen empowerment. It is time to take our collective destiny into our own hands.
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Claudia Chvalis Founder and Director of DemocracyNext, a non-profit institute working to transfer power to ordinary people. He previously led the OECD's work on innovative civic participation and the future of democracy.
An article published in a magazine IPS-magazine. Translated from English by Katazhina Chasov.
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