deliberative democracy

Can Citizens’ Assemblies help us?

| Readers 1211

In all the dozens of podcast interviews broadcast by the Holywell Trust, one idea to strengthen our society has been put forward repeatedly – citizens’ assemblies. They are not universally popular – both DUP and Conservative Party politicians have expressed concerns they would undermine the link between elected representatives and their constituents, threatening politicians’ legitimacy.  But the experience of Ireland’s citizens’ assemblies has inspired many. Assemblies provided routes to resolving politically challenging issues: same sex marriage, abortion, climate change and, now, gender inequality. And in …

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Soapbox: Democracy Day 2020 helps launch 14 initiatives to involve the public more in decision-making

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This time last week, more than 100 people gathered in Parliament Building’s Long Gallery for the fourth annual Democracy Day to share ideas about involving the public more in decision-making. At the heart of the programme organised by the Community Foundation in association with Imagine! Belfast Festival, 30 one-minute pitches made by organisations looking for support to hone their proposals and work with partners to deliver change.

Why Brexit is going wrong and how it could be fixed (part 2)

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This is the second of two posts here looking at Brexit through a democratic, rather than a political lens. In the previous post, I argued that the ‘cliff edge’ exit that is inevitable when leaving the EU is not sustainable for the EU, and that the UK would be doing everyone a favour by challenging it. The word “crisis” is over-used in British politics, but we are undoubtedly in one now. We have a Prime Minister who is trying to …

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If the Dail was like any other workplace it would sit from 9-5 Monday to Friday…

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So here’s interesting one. It seems that Sinn Fein’s campaign against selling alcohol in the national parliament has been passed on to the new generation of TDs. Louise O’Reilly yesterday questioned the necessity of having two bars in the Houses of the Oireachtas: “I find it incredible that my new workplace has not one but two bars. Aside from providing employment, albeit with somewhat erratic hours, I cannot see any reason for the existence of bars in this or any other …

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