Citizens' Assemblies: How They Work, With Examples

A citizens’ assembly is a group of residents selected by lot who spend several days or weekends learning about an issue, hearing experts and stakeholders, deliberating in facilitated groups and then voting on recommendations. Because members are chosen at random and balanced to reflect the population, the assembly is meant to be a ‘mini-public’ that shows what ordinary people conclude after careful consideration. Its recommendations usually go to parliament or government and are advisory.

Citizens’ assemblies are not a form of direct democracy in the sense of a popular vote. They are often described as deliberative democracy, and they can complement both elections and referendums.

How an assembly works

Phase	What happens
1. Mandate	Parliament, government or a city sets the question and promises how it will respond
2. Selection	Invitations to randomly drawn residents; from the volunteers, a group is drawn to match the population
3. Learning	Experts and stakeholders present a range of views; members ask questions
4. Deliberation	Small facilitated groups discuss options and trade-offs
5. Decision	Members vote on recommendations, often item by item
6. Response	The commissioning body reports what it will adopt, change or reject

Selection by lot

Random selection (sortition) is what distinguishes assemblies from consultations open to anyone. A common method is a two-stage lottery:

1. A large random sample of residents receives an invitation.
2. From those who accept, an algorithm or second lottery picks the final members so that the group matches the population on criteria such as age, gender, region, education and sometimes attitude to the topic.

Allowances, childcare and travel support help people take part who would otherwise not be able to.

Deliberation and voting

Facilitators make sure everyone gets to speak and that information is balanced. At the end, members typically vote on each recommendation. Some assemblies use ballot rules known from organisations, such as rating or approval scales; see approval and score voting. How the questions are framed matters as much as in any vote, as our guide to writing ballot questions explains.

Examples in Europe

• Ireland: a Constitutional Convention (2012–2014) combined randomly selected citizens with politicians. It was followed by a Citizens’ Assembly from 2016 with 99 citizen members and a chair. Recommendations from both bodies preceded the referendums on marriage equality (2015) and on the Eighth Amendment on abortion (2018). Further assemblies have since dealt with other topics. Reports are published at citizensassembly.ie.
• France: a citizens’ convention on climate with 150 members met in 2019 and 2020 and made proposals to the government; a later convention dealt with end-of-life care.
• Germany: the Bundestag set up its first citizens’ assembly, on food policy, in 2023. 160 randomly selected people took part, and the assembly handed over its report with nine recommendations in February 2024 (Bundestag information).
• Belgium: the German-speaking Community introduced a permanent citizens’ dialogue in 2019, in which a standing citizens’ council chooses topics for temporary assemblies.
• European Union: the Conference on the Future of Europe (2021–2022) included European Citizens’ Panels with randomly selected participants from all member states.
• United Kingdom: Climate Assembly UK was commissioned by parliamentary committees and reported in 2020.

Strengths and limits

Strengths	Limits
Representative cross-section, not just the most active citizens	Advisory status; influence depends on political follow-up
Time to learn and weigh evidence	Costly and time-consuming
Often reaches cross-party compromises	Choice of experts and framing can shape results
Builds trust when the process is transparent	Small group cannot claim the legitimacy of a vote

Researchers and practitioners continue to debate how much weight assembly recommendations should carry. We describe the method without endorsing a particular use.

Assemblies, initiatives and referendums

• An initiative lets citizens put a topic on the agenda by collecting signatures; see referendum vs. initiative and the European Citizens’ Initiative.
• A referendum lets the whole electorate decide; see What is a referendum?.
• A citizens’ assembly lets a representative sample deliberate. In Ireland, assemblies have prepared questions that were later decided by referendum.

Using the method in your organisation

The same principles work on a smaller scale: a club deciding on a new facility, a city consulting on a park, a company involving staff in a policy. Keep the mandate clear, select participants by lot from the full membership, provide balanced information, use neutral facilitation and publish both the recommendations and the response.