At its agm Salisbury Compass agreed to campaign for a Citizens’ Assembly (or Jury).
I thought it would be a good idea to deepen our understanding of deliberative democracy and widen the appeal for comments.
This is a major project which will require significant input so my plea to everyone reading this is to comment if you can – it is, so to speak, an online deliberation about whether you back the idea for deliberative democracy in the city and if so how it is to be achieved.
In the first instance I thought it would be useful to include a number of informative websites to help our future deliberations. Beyond the ballot: 57 democratic innovations from around the world is by our resident expert Graham Smith and is a useful overview of a range of experiments including Citizens’ Juries, which is the one we are favouring at the moment.
A very useful website by Participation Compass gives an overview of all the various options including Conversation Cafés, of which Salisbury Democracy Café is an example. Another website relates to a jury in the Forest of Dean held recently.
Also the government has just published a new document called Civil Society Strategy which includes a passage about Citizens’ Juries.
But really this is over to you. What do you think? Do you back the idea, in which case would you like to get involved in the organisation? Or do you oppose it and, if so, why?
The next meeting of Salisbury Compass will be on Saturday 18 August between 11am and 1pm at The Yard café in Dews Road (entrance via West Street).
Best wishes,
Dickie.
I think a Citizens Jury is an excellent way of extending local democracy. I do think that it would be given greater credibility with those who comprise the Jury if the decisions/recommendations made by the body are at the very least considered by the politicians. Therefore I do think a broad consensus needs to be built to support the idea. For example if the topic for deliberation were “homelessness and what steps can be taken to reduce it at a local level”, getting the local charities, such as Alabare and Salisbury Trust for the Homeless, involved would be vital. I think it would be worth sounding them out in the first instance to see if they think the idea has any merit and whether they think the recommendations are likely to be supported by local bodies.
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Hi Mark, thanks for replying. Getting the topic first seems to be the way to go – at least according to the handbook I attached. But that seems to be a fairly lengthy process in itself in order to ensure that it is truly democratic process, involving the launch of a steering committee comprising a wide range of people and several meetings. Nevertheless, it seems to be an important process if we are to build confidence and credibility. If we are to continue with this then I think we’ll need to look at it as a long-term campaign, take our time and don’t, at the moment at least, set a deadline.
Dickie.
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I have been involved with Citizens’ Juries over a number of years, mostly as a facilitator but also as a participant. I think they are effective and can make a meaningful contribution to debate and local democracy. They do, however, require a good deal of preparation and planning but none of that is impossible. They are usually commissioned so that there is some certainty that the views expressed will at least be considered – where this isn’t the case, it may be more difficult to make sure that deliberations are recognised. I am happy to help with any such developments in Salisbury. Frances
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I think this is a very promising idea. As others have noted, getting it “owned” by parish or county councils, and having the right initial topic, and support could be critical. Perhaps keep raising the profile of using citizen’s juries successfully elsewhere locally and trying to see if the seed of the idea finds fertile ground eventually to make it happen here.
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