ADVOCACY & CAPACITY-BUILDING
We advocate through different channels to increase awareness and support for deliberative methods among policy-makers, civil society organisations and the public at large. One of the main ways to achieve this is to increase the visibility of the existing actors and their work in this field at all levels of government. We also organize public events to build the capacity necessary to design and implement citizens’ assemblies.
Advocacy
Our goal is to transform our democracies towards deliberation-driven and citizen-centred institutions. We work towards democracies that strengthen our active citizenship and include everyone in its decision-making.
We advocate for meaningful deliberative processes in different settings, from public events to consultations and media. Our aim is to put deliberative methods in the toolbox of institutions, policy-makers and interest groups to tackle the issues they focus on in a novel and inclusive way.
During our annual event, we bring together policy-makers, civil society and democratic innovators. Citizens’ Assemblies emerge as a tool for all parties involved in policy-making to overcome political deadlock and spark broader societal debates.
Deliberative Schools
Two-day events on all things Citizens’ Assemblies.
Well-run deliberative processes are key to achieving all the benefits we associate with these methods. Poorly designed and implemented assemblies may hinder our efforts to reinstate trust in political institutions and make them more inclusive. That’s why we are focused on creating the necessary democratic capacity to transform our societies and institutions for the better.
We combine the leading experts in the field and facilitation methods to create a collective learning experience. The schools are aimed at politicians, civil servants, civil society organisations and practitioners. We also partner with local actors to support and strengthen the deliberative wave in their territories.
Past editions:
‘‘ The event was really great - with a good balance between the formats proposed and content provided, well planned logistics and last but not least people-oriented and community building. The whole set up enabled us to share experiences and ideas in different groups, topics and occasions. I came back from the event motivated and inspired! ’’
— Agnieszka Pedzich, Field of Dialogue Foundation
Spring School, 2023
“ Excellent program, good work from the organisers. All the arrangements, program, and atmosphere that supported dialogue - remarkable job! ”
— Lari Karreinen, Osana, Finland
Autumn School, 2023
Statements & Endorsements
European Democracy Organizations Call to Prioritise Citizens’ Deliberation
41 organizations that work on democratic innovation in 13 Member States urge European institutions to prioritise, promote and stimulate democratic innovation and citizen engagement. The Belgian presidency and the next European legislature are a crucial period for our democracies, we need to act urgently and ambitiously. To strengthen European democracies, we propose three recommendations to plan, integrate and support deliberative processes at all levels.
Read the full letter here.
Democratic Action Fund
As part of a global consortium of democratic innovators, we promote the establishment of Democratic Action Funds to dedicate five percent of the cost of running elections to support civic dialogue and deliberation each year.
Learn more about it at demafund.org
Joint statement FIDE, G1000 & DemNext
The European Commission recently announced its ‘Defence of Democracy’ package to protect EU democracies from covert foreign influence. It consists of plans to strengthen regulations on transparency of political advertising, funding of political parties and measures on voting rights. Although these are welcome steps, the initiative currently risks falling dangerously short.
FIDE, G1000 and DemocracyNext urge the Commission to include deliberative democracy in the package, using the proven model of Citizens’ assemblies. The EU should be a trailblazer to spread and support Citizens’ Assemblies throughout Europe to counter democratic stagnation and backsliding.