When we created Deliberativa in 2020, we knew that the deliberative wave was already underway and that it was coming to Spain. In those five years, a dozen Citizen Assemblies and Conventions have been held, with or without our advice, in several autonomous communities, in cities and at the state level. Several others are underway or in preparation. We believe that this is an unstoppable movement, which will increasingly contribute to provide concrete answers to the lack of confidence in the current political systems.
Looking to the future, we see some points of concern and also of hope.
Concern comes from Citizens’ Assemblies that are set up without following basic OECD criteria, in particular that of pluralistic governance that ensures that all parties can have confidence in the procedure and the results; we are also concerned that not enough effort is made to ensure that the mandates given to the Assemblies are focused on a clear policy dilemma and that the lottery that is conducted does not always give equal opportunity to all citizens.
The hope comes from the fact that most of the processes are carried out with courage from their political leaders and a great deal of effort from administrations that understand their importance and value. If the principles of action are clear, we are still, in all countries of the world, fine-tuning the methodologies and all processes contribute to their improvement. It should also be noted that many administrations are becoming capable of carrying out mini-publics, particularly in the Basque Country and Catalonia, and that more and more political leaders understand the importance of institutionalization in order to have standardized mechanisms that are part of the political system, contributing to generate political agreements in an efficient and direct manner through the informed deliberation of the citizens involved.