Proposed Citizens' Assemblies
In Ireland, political reform has become a popular topic since 2008 due to the 2008–2011 Irish financial crisis and also due to accumulating revelations of political corruption. As a means to decide on political reforms, the idea of citizens' assemblies — and other similar processes — are gaining in popularity. During the 2011 general election, most of the smaller parties and all of the major political parties that were then represented in parliament included commitments to supporting a process of this kind. Subsequently, the new government has proposed a "Constitutional Convention", 67 of whose 100 members would be ordinary citizens chosen randomly from the electoral register.
Several lobby groups are also campaigning for a citizens' assembly in Ireland. These include We the Citizens, who hosted a citizens' assembly in order to demonstrate the merit of citizens' assemblies in practice, and Second Republic, a grass-roots group who produced a Proposal for an Citizens' Assembly on Political Reform in Ireland. The topic has also been extensively discussed on the academic blog, politicalreform.ie.
In the United Kingdom, following a series of public scandals in 2001, a petition campaign has begun to form a people's jury of 1,000 people to investigate issues around media ownership, the financial sector, MP selections and accountability and other matters.
Read more about this topic: Citizens' Assembly
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