<nettime> The Uses and Abuses of Citizens’ Assemblies

Of all the Conservative Party candidates competing in the parade of lying nincompoops to be the UK's next Prime Minister Rory Stewart is the exception in that he actually tries to answer questions and is the most honest about the obstacles ahead.

However the central part of pitch to solve Brexit impasse is to use the evolving method of Citizens’ Assemblies modeled on Irish abortion referendum is deeply flawed for the following reasons:

1. unlike the Irish Ref Stewart is ruling out in advance the two most likely outcomes "no deal"or a "confirmatory referendum". Its completely pointless to convene a Citizens' Assembly with the participants aware that the two probable outcomes have already been ruled out.

2. The Irish Citizens' Assemblies happened as part of the Referendum process itself so the participants had a sense of genuine agency and saw that they were contributing to the outcome which of course made the process credible.

3. Although the Irish example lead to a positive outcome there are a quite a few less positive examples of Citzens Assemblies. This is no reason to try but expectations should be moderated.

4. The Irish process had plenty of time to unfold. So unless Stewart was to commit to extending the deadline beyond October and committing to considering all outcomes not just ones he already favours then it is not so much a solution to Brexit block as a dodgy gimmick.

It is also important to recognise that the Labour MP Stella Creasy has been proposing a Citizen's Assembly to address Brexit for nearly 2 years. But the difference is that she would fold them into a new Referendum on the deal, with nothing ruled out and on the basis of enough time to enact the process properly.

This is extremely important as Citzens' Assemblies are an important innovation that hold out some hope of reforming the democratic process that is badly in need of repair.

This really is a multi-dimensional opportunity because as well as creating a framework for experts to advise citizens rather than dictate to these bodies could be integrated into or constitutions as part of the process of building a 'knowledge democracy’. This would be an important challenge to the populist phenomenon of politics as a “knowledge free zone”. It would represent a challenge to parties like Farage's Brexit Party who refuse to have a manifesto for us to examine or individuals like Boris Johnson and Trump who refuse to submit themselves to meaningful journalistic scrutiny.

That’s why its important that Stewart does not contribute to discrediting the potential of Citizens Assemblies by misapplying them as part of a poorly thought through piece of political expediency.

David Garcia - Brexit Correspondent for Radio Patapou-