Designing Deliberative Democracy (Hardcover)

Mark E. Warren

ISBN 10: 0521885078 / ISBN 13: 9780521885072

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008

About this Item

Hardcover. Is it possible to advance democracy by empowering ordinary citizens to make key decisions about the design of political institutions and policies? In 2004, the government of British Columbia embarked on a bold democratic experiment: it created an assembly of 160 near-randomly selected citizens to assess and redesign the province's electoral system. The British Columbia Citizens' Assembly represents the first time a citizen body has had the power to reform fundamental political institutions. It was an innovative gamble that has been replicated elsewhere in Canada and in the Netherlands, and is gaining increasing attention in Europe as a democratic alternative for constitution-making and constitutional reform. In the USA, advocates view citizens' assemblies as a means for reforming referendum processes. This book investigates the citizens' assembly in British Columbia to test and refine key propositions of democratic theory and practice. The idea of 'deliberative democracy' suggests that democracies need collective deliberation and reflection as much as they need voting to make public decisions. Contributors to this book assess the merits of the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly, an unprecedented deliberative institution which empowered ordinary citizens to redesign their electoral system. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780521885072

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Designing Deliberative Democracy (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521885078
• ISBN 13: 9780521885072
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Is it possible to advance democracy by empowering ordinary citizens to make key decisions about the design of political institutions and policies? In 2004, the government of British Columbia embarked on a bold democratic experiment: it created an assembly of 160 near-randomly selected citizens to assess and redesign the province’s electoral system. The British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly represents the first time a citizen body has had the power to reform fundamental political institutions. It was an innovative gamble that has been replicated elsewhere in Canada and in the Netherlands, and is gaining increasing attention in Europe as a democratic alternative for constitution-making and constitutional reform. In the USA, advocates view citizens’ assemblies as a means for reforming referendum processes. This book investigates the citizens’ assembly in British Columbia to test and refine key propositions of democratic theory and practice.

About the Authors

Mark E. Warren holds the Harold and Dorrie Merilees Chair for the Study of Democracy and is Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at the University of British Columbia.

Hilary Pearse is a Ph.D. candidate and Commonwealth Scholar in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia.