Quality standards for citizens' assemblies
In a study in 2020 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined guiding principles for citizens' assemblies. Supplemented by the findings and research on citizens' assemblies from the local to the global level, some quality criteria emerge:
- Participants are determined by sortition/random selection. A group size of 35 to 200 - depending on the size of the municipality or the political level - seems sufficient to represent the diversity of society well.
- Criteria such as age, gender, education, place of residence, community size and migration background are taken into account when selecting the members of the Citizens' Assembly from the applications submitted by those randomly selected, so that a cross-section of the population is represented as far as possible.
- The balanced participation of the participants is important and is ensured by a professional and content-neutral moderation.
- The participants receive comprehensive and comprehensible information. In addition to the moderator, experts are used for this purpose. These can be experts or people with experiential knowledge ("affected persons").
- Sufficient time must be available for knowledge acquisition and exchange. A citizens' assembly therefore not seldom meets on several dates, often over weeks or even months.
- The topic of the citizens' assembly should be of high public interest and clearly delimited. Controversial or urgent topics may be particularly suitable (e.g. marriage for same-sex couples or climate protection goals).
- The citizens' report (i.e. the recommendations that the participants develop) should have a clear purpose and addressee. Ideally, it is clear at the beginning of the citizens' assembly who will receive the proposals (e.g. parliament or government) and what steps will follow (e.g. referral to the relevant political bodies).
- The responsible government or municipal administration should present an implementation report to the Citizens' Assembly participants and the public one year after handing over the assembly recommendations, showing which recommendations have been or will be implemented and how. If recommendations are rejected, the reasons should be explained.
- Openness and transparency of the entire process are necessary in order to make the results accessible to politics and administration. In order to involve society as a whole, media support is important.
- To ensure quality, it is advisable to commission independent implementation institutes and a scientific evaluation.