Catching Influence: Citizens’ Assemblies and the Policy Process

Grasping influence on the policy process is a challenging yet essential research endeavour. The conceptualisation and operationalization of this notion have sparked extensive debates in both theoretical and empirical works. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting the approach developed in the ‘Citizen_Impact’ project. This project seeks to disentangle the influence of citizens’ assemblies on the policy process across six European countries where they have been implemented. These assemblies are inclusive bodies convened by public authorities to deliberate and deliver policy recommendations. They have generated much enthusiasm for their democratic potential, as well as criticisms for their perceived powerlessness. Drawing on qualitative analysis, our approach goes beyond counting correspondences between recommendations and policy decisions, as often found in the literature on participatory processes. Instead, it seeks to conceptualise influence in a more dynamic way by considering the origins of assemblies, the ideological orientation of their proposals, and their connections with power relations among political actors. The present paper delineates the conceptual framework underpinning the project, whilst presenting the findings derived from the initial four case studies, which are situated in four distinct countries (Germany, Ireland, Austria and Poland). In doing so, it contributes to the broader effort in policy sciences to develop theoretical and methodological tools to understand influence in contemporary political systems.