The Irish Citizens' Assembly

Before the Citizens' Assembly, there was the Constitutional Convention.

This earlier version of deliberative democracy was not exclusively comprised of members of the public but also included elected officials. Its 100 members were composed of 29 representatives from Ireland’s legislature, four representatives of political parties, and 66 randomly-selected citizens. It met from 2010 - 2014 to discuss a series of constitutional issues.

The most challenging issue for the Convention was abortion - which as also reflected in Irish party politics.

Mainstream parties had long steered clear of the abortion debate. After dominating the political arena for three consecutive terms in government, Fianna Fáil initiated the controversial Eight Amendment to the Irish Constitution 1983,  which effectively banned abortion. But by 2011, the party saw major political losses, and its mainstream rival Fine Gael gained a record 45% of seats in the Parliament.

Fine Gael had traditionally taken an ambivalent position on abortion despite historically being the more socially progressive mainstream party. In the aftermath of the popular vote on same-sex marriage in 2015, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil realized a need to address the abortion debate head-on - “the hot potato” of Irish politics.

In February 2018, people's trust in the Irish Citizen’s Assembly was shaken

Irish pollsters Red C were to recruit participants through random-selection. But it emerged that seven participants were instead friends of an employee of the company. The revelation caused an uproar among pro-life groups, leading conservative TDs (Teachta Dála, Irish for: Member of Parliament) to call for the postponement of the forthcoming abortion referendum amid claims that “the whole process is compromised.” 

Like any democratic instrument, citizens' assemblies are imperfect. They require procedural caution and oversight to earn the trust of citizens.