When Citizens Decide : Lessons from Citizen Assemblies on Electoral Reform

Three unprecedented large-scale democratic experiments have taken place--in British Columbia, the Netherlands, and Ontario--in which groups of randomly selected ordinary citizens were asked to independently design the next electoral system. When Citizens Decide uses these unique cases to examine claims about citizens' capacity for democratic deliberation and active engagement in policy-making. It offers empirical insight into numerous debates and provides answers to key questions. The lessons drawn from the research are relevant for those interested in political participation, public opinion, deliberation, public policy, and democracy

Patrick Fournier is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Montreal, and the principal investigator for the next two Canadian Election Studies. His research interests include political behavior, political psychology, citizen competence, opinion change, and survey methodology.

Henk van der Kolk is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Twente, and was co-directed the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies in 1998, 2006, and 2010. His research interests include electoral systems, electoral behavior, political participation, and local politics.

R. Kenneth Carty is Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, has held the Brenda & David McLean Chair in Canadian Studies, served as the Director of the UBC Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and is past President of the Canadian Political Science Association. He is a specialist on the structure, organization, and behavior of political parties and competitive party systems.

André Blais is Professor of Political Science at the University of Montreal, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and past President of the Canadian Political Science Association. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies, and is the principal investigator for the Making Electoral Democracy Work project. Blais's research interests include elections, electoral systems, turnout, public opinion, and methodology.

Jonathan Rose is Associate Professor of Political Science at Queen's University, and served as the Academic Director of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. He has held visiting positions at Victoria University of Wellington, the International Study Centre, and Kwansei Gakuin University. Rose's research interests include Canadian politics, mass media, political communication, political advertising, and propaganda.