More Power to the People? The Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and the Future for Minipublic Deliberation in Ireland

Seána Glennon

University College Dublin

The recently released recommendations of Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality contain a raft of radical measures to achieve a more equal Irish society. The Assembly’s final report is expected to be transmitted to government and published in June 2021, bringing to a conclusion the role of the citizen participants. Will these recommendations go the way of many previous citizens’ assembly recommendations, and gather dust on a shelf in government buildings? 

The work of the Citizens’ Assembly has been hailed as another successful example of deliberative democracy in Ireland, showing that ordinary citizens are more than capable of working together to learn about and debate significant public issues (often in a more collaborative and respectful manner than that demonstrated in parliament) and produce concrete recommendations to achieve legal and policy reforms.  

Yet, the output of the Citizens’ Assembly is just that: a set of recommendations. While the Assembly’s report will be furnished to parliament, the government is under no obligation to action any of the suggested recommendations or to provide reasons should it decline to do so. 

From the Convention on the Constitution in 2012 (which was comprised of both ordinary citizens and elected representatives, tasked with considering a range of potential constitutional reforms) to the establishment of the first citizens’ assembly in 2016, Ireland has gradually established itself as a front runner internationally in incorporating citizens into its law reform process. Citizen deliberation preceded the same sex marriage referendum and the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, to much international acclaim.  

Yet, as noted by Oran Doyle and Rachel Walsh in their recent analysis of citizen recommendations made in Ireland, some 28 such recommendations have been made to date (not including the 45 made by the most recent Assembly) and of those, only three have resulted in constitutional amendment. Some have simply not been actioned by government at all, or have been deferred. The use of citizens’ assemblies is viewed cynically by some, as a way for governments to avoid tackling politically sensitive issues instead of demonstrating leadership on important but potentially unpopular human rights issues. Scholars such as Cristina Lafont question why we should defer to the views of an unelected group of citizens who do not possess any particular expertise on the area under consideration. 

The very fact that these citizen forums are not composed of politicians or experts, however, is a clue to their claim to legitimacy. Citizens' assemblies are designed to include a much more representative sample of society, in terms of age, gender and socio-economic background, than parliament. Citizen participants can come to the process with an open mind and do not have to face the prospect of losing their seat at the next election, should they make what might be perceived as unpopular proposals. Citizens' assemblies themselves came about in Ireland as a response to the decline in trust in our elected institutions following the 2008 recession.  

Many people agree, furthermore, that more active participation by citizens can enhance democracy and lead to more democratically legitimate law reforms that reflect what the wider public really wants. Is it sufficient, then, that the Citizens’ Assembly is only empowered to make recommendations to those in government, who have the discretion to ignore those recommendations if they choose? 

Carolyn Hendriks proposes a novel solution to this problem: the “designed coupling” of citizens and elites within a political system. This idea involves a more active, dynamic connection between the two that goes further than just the transmission of recommendations. For instance, this might mean a role for the citizens’ assembly in formally engaging with legislative committees, discussing the reasoning for its recommendations and questioning a decision not to take up any of the recommendations made.  

We can look to other countries for more dynamic examples of relationships between citizens’ assemblies and representatives in practice. In the US, the Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review is established by state law and composed of a group of randomly selected citizens that assesses (with the assistance of experts) laws proposed through the referendum or initiative process. It produces a one-page statement explaining the proposed law and including reasons for and against voting for it, which is included in the guide sent to each registered voter. It is a formal component of the referendum process in the state of Oregon and has been piloted in a number of other US states; it has also been piloted in Switzerland. 

In 2019, the Ostbelgien parliament in Belgium established a permanent Citizens’ Council, comprised of a rotating cohort of randomly selected citizens, tasked with assigning topics to citizens’ assemblies and monitoring parliament’s progress in implementing agreed actions. Rather than being assigned topics on an ad hoc basis, like in Ireland, the Ostbelgien version empowers citizens to set the agenda. 

A further recent example of the formal embedding of citizen deliberation into the legislative process can be found in Mongolia, which passed a new law in 2017 requiring a process of citizen deliberation to take place to effect certain constitutional amendments. 

Ireland’s experience with the successive citizens’ assemblies has demonstrated the potential for ordinary people to play an active part in shaping our values as a nation. The measures recommended by this most recent Citizens’ Assembly are radical. They include a referendum to replace the ‘woman in the home’ clause in the Constitution; the introduction of gender quota legislation requiring companies to achieve at a minimum 40% gender balance on boards; the provision of a publicly funded model of childcare; legislative targets to reduce the gender pay gap; and an overhaul of the treatment of sexual assault victims in the legal system. The recommendations have been welcomed by advocacy groups such as the Women’s Council of Ireland and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. 

Having commenced its deliberations in February 2020, the Assembly’s work was postponed for a number of months due to Covid-19, before recommencing online and completing its mandate remotely. The challenges posed by Covid-19 therefore not only impacted the Assembly from a logistical perspective, but also came to the fore in one of the Assembly’s most important topics, that of gender based violence, in circumstances where the pandemic shone a stark spotlight on the prevalence of domestic violence in Ireland. 

The trend of submitting important constitutional matters for consideration by deliberative minipublics shows no sign of abating in Ireland. Most recently we have witnessed calls from prominent politicians for a new citizens’ assembly on the topic of a possible border poll on a united Ireland. This is positive from a democratic legitimacy perspective. As we look to the future of citizen deliberation, however, we can learn valuable lessons from the creative approaches taken in some other jurisdictions to the powers afforded to citizens’ assemblies, such as formal engagement with parliamentary committees and the ability for citizens themselves to set the terms of reference.   

If the government is serious about showing accountability regarding about gender equality in Ireland and about the meaningful inclusion of citizens in future constitutional processes, perhaps the time has come to consider empowering citizens’ assemblies to do more than simply pass on recommendations.   

Seána Glennon is a PhD candidate at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, Ireland, researching democratic legitimacy in constitutional reform processes, and is Chief Outreach Officer at UCD's Centre for Constitutional Studies. 

Suggested citation: Seána Glennon, ‘More Power to the People? The Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and The Future for Minipublic Deliberation in Ireland’, IACL-AIDC Blog (15 June 2021) https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/2021-posts/15-5-21more-power-to-the-people-the-citizens-assembly.