Deliberative practices have many names and surnames: Citizens’ Assemblies (a name widely used in the Anglo-Saxon world since the 2000s when they began to be organized at the country level, and also used in most countries of the world), Citizens’ Conventions (used mainly in France, but also in the Citizens’ Convention of the Valencian Community on mental health), mini-publics (academic acceptance), Citizens’ Juries (which refers to the practices of the 1980s, which are similar to the current ones in their essence), and a long etcetera.
In Spain, the first initiatives at the end of the 90’s were called Citizens’ Juries, and since 2020 we follow the international inertia talking about Citizens’ Assemblies. After a few years of intense work, and seeing the need for these processes to have the support of all ideologies, we think that the word Assembly is not the most appropriate in Spain because it refers to a mainly left-wing imaginary. Hence we propose that the following processes could be called, as in France, Citizens’ Conventions, understanding that the word “Convention” has a more neutral and politically less situated meaning, with which all political forces can feel comfortable.