Tools of Inclusion or Reproduction of Marginalisation? Evaluation of the Inclusiveness of Selection Process of Polish Citizens’ Assemblies.

Recently, a popular concern in studies on deliberative minipublics has been their actual inclusiveness for members of disadvantaged groups. In particular, the researchers identify the barriers to marginalised groups’ participation, question the extent to which these processes promote inclusiveness, or even criticise them as tools that reproduce existing inequalities (Wojciechowska 2017, Curato & Calamba 2024, Zieliński & Ufel 2024). Besides the process of deliberation, these concerns regard the second defining element of minipublics, which is random selection of participants (Spada & Peixoto 2025, Talukder & Paulis 2025). At the same time, there is still insufficient empirical research that systematically analyses this problem, taking into account the whole selection process and studying numerous cases of minipublics. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to evaluate the selection process in deliberative minipublics from the perspective of their inclusiveness for members of disadvantaged groups. Specifically, the study investigates: (1) what methods of inclusion of disadvantaged groups are used in the CA’s selection process and which disadvantaged groups do they regard, (2) whether these selection processes are inclusive, and (3) which of the methods of participants’ selection guarantee the inclusiveness of the process. The study is conducted on the basis of 16 cases of citizens’ assemblies that took place in Poland in 2016-2025. It is carried out with the use of desk research, whose subjects are the reports from the selection processes and data concerning the demographic profiles of their participants.