Civic Assemblies
Civic Assemblies are a form of deliberative democracy that brings together a randomly selected representative group of residents, called Delegates, to provide civic insight, information, and recommendations on public policy and its process through in-depth deliberation and productive collaboration.
Benefits
Enables evidence-driven public discourse and more collaborative, cooperative politics.
Creates diversity in civic participation and increases access for historically marginalized groups.
Surfaces previously untapped ideas and encourages effective policy co-production.
Enhances mutual trust in governance and fosters ownership with residents in public decision-making.
How it works
1. Lottery Selection
5k to 15k randomly selected households receive an invitation to participate in the Civic Assembly. Of those who respond to the invitation, Delegates are selected based on 7+ factor criteria to ensure a community’s unique demographic and political diversity is fully represented.
2. Orientation
With the help of professional moderators, Delegates are introduced to the process, walk through helpful methodologies to digest the information they’ll receive, and review best practices on how to productively collaborate, deliberate, and sustain feedback loops with one another, stakeholders, the broader public, and program staff throughout the entire process.
3. Information Gathering
Delegates hear from dozens of stakeholders and technical experts and conduct research on the topic at hand. With support from professional moderators, Delegates filter the acquired information and conduct gap analyses to ensure information is strong, reliable, and encompasses comprehensive perspectives on the issue.
4. Deliberation
Delegates deliberate in small and large group formats with the support of our professional staff and moderators to define decision-making criteria, discuss potential policy options, and prioritize alternatives for the issue at hand.
5. Policy Recommendations
Due to the more inclusive and collaborative process, the Assembly produces policy recommendation(s) that answer questions at any stage of the policy-making cycle. These recommendations, written entirely in the Delegates’ own words, include policy issue rationales encompassing all perspectives on the challenge at hand and guidance around future decision-making. The final report provides sound, innovative, and legitimate insight for public officials and administrators to make more actionable and effective decisions.
See it in Action
Around the world, governments are employing Civic Assemblies to put people at the center of democracy. Since 2008, Healthy Democracy has designed and convened assemblies in five U.S. states and two other countries.
CIVIC ASSEMBLY PROGRAM OFFERINGS
Civic Assemblies can take many forms, depending on the complexity of the topic and the resources available. They can supplement current public engagement practices, replace existing bodies, or create new democratic infrastructure.
We start with the standard components below to customize the design of each Civic Assembly to fit the community’s needs.
ONE-TIME NEED
| GENERAL ASSEMBLY | IN-DEPTH ASSEMBLY |
|---|---|
| Lower Complexity | Higher Complexity |
| Best for a more expansive, technical, or contentious policy issue | Best for a more expansive, technical, or contentious policy issue |
| 20–30 Delegates | 30-200+ Delegates |
| 4–6 full days | 5-14 full days |
| 10+ information sources | 15+ information sources |
| 5–10 page report | 10–20 page report |
| 1+ feedback loop | 2+ feedback loops |
| $30,000 – $100,000 | $70,000 – $250,000+ |
ON-GOING NEEDS
| STANDING ASSEMBLY | GOVERNANCE ASSEMBLY |
|---|---|
| Lower Complexity | Higher Complexity |
| Best for periodic feedback on a narrow set of policy topics | Best for serving multiple departments or a core governance function |
| 20–30 Delegates | 20–40 Delegates |
| 8–12+ full days/yr | 10–20+ full days/yr |
| 15+ information sources/yr | 20+ information sources/yr |
| Brief, periodic reports | Brief, periodic reports |
| 2+ feedback loops | 3+ feedback loops |
| $60,000 – $150,000/yr | $60,000 – $150,000/yr |