Regaining citizen power - institutionalisation of a citizen assembly in local government

Citizens’ assemblies (CAs) are nowadays becoming popular tools supplementing the decision-making process in complex public policies, especially at the local level (OECD 2020). At the same time, the prevailing majority of the CAs are still organised in isolation from other democratic institutions and are not regulated in publicly binding law. Thus, it is underlined that to strengthen CAs’ positive impact on public policies it is necessary to institutionalise them and to integrate them with other public institutions participating in the decision-making process (ibid., Dean et al.2022). If the CA is to become a permanent institution of public decision-making, its design and implementation should ensure that it will gain an adequate democratic legitimacy. The legitimacy of the CAs can be analysed in the aspects of input, throughput and output of this institution (Schmidt 2013) and can be affected by various elements of its design and implementation (Caluwaerts and Reuchamps 2015). Since the CA is a complex process and is organised independently in many different countries and cities, there is a risk that these elements will not always stand in line with the theoretical claims concerning their functioning. Consequently, CA’s legitimacy to participate in the decision-making process can be lowered. Thus, the aim of the research is to formulate the proposal of institutionalisation of the CA in the political and legal system of local government, which would provide this institution with input, output and throughput legitimacy, and would be consistent with the systemic principles of local government. The study covers analysis of four elements of CA influencing its legitimacy: random selection, process of deliberation, impact on public policies, and its integration with other democratic institutions. In the last part of the research the proposal of institutionalisation of the permanent local CA is formulated. The research was conducted on the basis of Polish local government and analysed the cases of dozen local CAs organised since 2016 in Poland, as well as the first Polish national CA. Complementary, other European CAs were studied, including cases of constitutional CAs, and two systems of permanent CAs. The cases were analysed with the use of diversified methods, including: desk research, formal-legal analysis, comparative-legal analysis, interviews, and participatory observation. The conducted study connects existing theoretical concepts concerning various elements of CA into one research approach enabling studying the functioning of the institution of CA in the political and legal system. Moreover it connects these concepts with the theories concerning functioning of participatory institutions in the legal system. The research questions are addressed with the use of diversified methods, specific to both political and legal sciences. Thus, the study provides an interdisciplinary perspective to the analysed problem, both theoretically and methodologically connecting the approach of political and legal sciences.