The Observatorio de Ciudad (OC) was the first permanent chamber of randomly selected citizens at the city level in Europe. Its origin story begins in the aftermath of the 15M movement, one the biggest popular mobilizations against austerity policies in Spanish history. In May 2015, Ahora Madrid took power in the city administration, ending 24 years of rule by Spain’s center-right party in the capital. The merger party was composed of a coalition of progressive actors, many from 15-M, who converged around the agenda of participatory reforms…

In December 2015, a stratified random sample of 317 Mongolians gathered in the capital city Ulaanbaatar to participate in a Deliberative Poll on major infrastructure projects proposed in the city master plan. The Ulaanbaatar Deliberative Poll, the first of its kind in Mongolia, initially came about through chance encounters between Gombojav Zandanshatar, a former Mongolian MP, Ulaanbaatar’s then-mayor Erdeniin Bat-Üül, and Jim Fishkin, the founder of Deliberative Polling. In 2015, the Deliberative Poll was commissioned and implemented by the Capital City Governor’s Office with support from the Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab and The Asia Foundation.

Agora is a political party founded in 2018 that holds one seat in the Brussels Regional Parliament (2019-2024). Though taking the form of a political party, Agora identifies as a “social movement.” Distinct from traditional parties, its single programmatic aim is to institutionalize a permanent citizens’ assembly with binding power. The Agora MP’s two mandates—conveying recommendations of a citizens’ assembly and advocating for citizen participation within Parliament—service this goal. As Pepijn Kennis, Agora’s first elected MP puts it, the original motivating logic was, “Let’s go and get that seat because it gives us the human and financial resources to organize these assemblies,” as well as a formal voice to insert citizens’ recommendations into Parliament.

In 2015, then-city planner of Toronto Jennifer Keesmaat called for the establishment of a sitting citizens’ panel to review and comment on major planning initiatives. Keesmaat was familiar with citizen participatory events at the time and believed that her department’s work could lend itself well to public engagement. This was not the first standing citizens’ panel that Toronto, nor  the City Planning Division, had implemented. Prior to the Planning Review Panel, the city had held what was called the Design Review Panel, an opportunity for architects to offer their expert insight and advice to the city.

The Convention of the Future Armenian is unique in a number of ways: its topic focused on identity and culture rather than a political issue; it included people of Armenian culture from across the world and sought to be reflective of the global Armenian population (which therefore offered unique applications of sortition and ideals of representativity); and its own definition of institutionalization relied on the idea of permanence rather than embedding itself into a governmental or otherwise decision-making body.

On September 16, 2019, 24 randomly-selected residents of West Belgium were assembled to decide on the topics of the first institutionalized and permanent deliberative body in the regional government. As participants of the first Citizens’ Council, they represented the beginning of the implementation of what is now called the Ostbelgien Model. This model has since produced numerous Citizens’ Assemblies, deliberative bodies that are convened by a group of citizens and responsible for proposing policy recommendations on a topic chosen by that same group of citizens.

In 2020, Local Government Victoria decided to review their existing Act (the state’s mandate which its government updates periodically). One minister, Natalie Hutchins, who was the Minister for Local Government, Industrial Relations, and Aboriginal Affairs at the time, had championed deliberative processes as early as 2016. The Greater Geelong City Council began implementing citizen participation in 2016 when the Victorian Parliament voted to dismiss the City Council after an independent investigation. Because of the political shake-up, the Parliament committed to consulting the community in the restructuring of its local government. A citizens’ jury was called by Natalie Hutchins, Minister for Local Government.

Note: We have included two perspectives on the Brussels Mixed Legislative Committees: one from the civil servant side, and the other from the operational. Here, Jonathan Moskovic speaks to his experience as a member of the civil servant team that designed the Committees.

In 2019, the Brussels Francophone Parliament became the first legislative chamber in the world to create “mixed” legislative committees that included elected politicians and randomly selected citizens. This piece tells the story of how this came to be, where it stands now, and what’s next.

In the last three decades, China has witnessed the development of consultative and deliberative institutions (He, 2006).An increasing number of public hearings have provided people with opportunities to express their opinions on a wide range of issues, such as the price of water and electricity, park entry fees, the relocation of farmers, the conservation of historical landmarks, and even the relocation of the famous Beijing zoo, to name a few (Zhongzhao, et al., 2004).