Democracy, Paris-style… How assemblies are changing laws
5 min read: In a new essay, Claudia Chwalisz unpacks the permanent Paris Citizens’ Assembly’s unique approach to transforming recommendations into law
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Last year, the Paris City Council passed an important democratic milestone by adopting the first bill drafted by its permanent citizens' assembly. Claudia Chwalisz, Founder and CEO of DemocracyNext, and an advisor on the creation of the Paris assembly, has a new essay published by the University of McGill’s Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy and Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. She lays out the pioneering collaborative approach that brings citizens, politicians, and administrators together to transform recommendations into actionable policy, and how this model can drive change in Canada.
The Paris Citizens' Assembly represents a significant evolution in how permanent assemblies can work effectively with existing political and administrative structures. Each year, the citizens choose tough topics needing a solution both from ideas submitted by the council and from their own investigations. They are then briefed by experts, deliberate, and set out policy recommendations.
The second Paris citizens' assembly of 2023-24 – which decided to tackle greening city streets and homelessness – saw citizens, politicians, and civil servants work together in the crucial final stages of drafting the Citizen Bill. This created a model that could help address one of the main challenges facing deliberative democracy: narrowing the gap between citizens' recommendations and actual policy implementation.
Key success factors
Chwalisz's essay details all that was new in Paris and how to adapt this model further for other cities, specifically in Canada.
Political will: strong support from the mayor and executive branch created genuine cooperation between citizens and officials and secured broader support for the final policy.
Clear process design: The Paris model dedicated time and a four-phase structure to allow the citizens, politicians, and civil servants to co-create the final legislation. This bridged the gap between recommendations and actionable policy.
Institutional integration: To ensure its legitimacy and authority in the policy-making process, the citizens’ assembly was formally recognised in city council regulations. This ensured that recommendations were taken seriously and not sidelined.
Time and resources: To allow for thorough discussion to refine recommendations, conversations were allowed to run over schedule and take the time they needed.
Stakeholder involvement: To build support from the outset, there was regular engagement with opposition parties, civil servants, and other stakeholders. This made recommendations not only ambitious, but also achievable.
Opportunities for Canada
Canada was a pioneer in citizens' assemblies. In the 2000s, citizens' assemblies in British Columbia and Ontario produced well-crafted guidance on electoral reform, although those recommendations ultimately failed to reach the high referendum thresholds required for implementation. There have been around 50 municipal, provincial, and national deliberative processes since then.
In her essay, Chwalisz explores how Canadian jurisdictions can build on the Paris model. Canadian cities already have public consultation mechanisms in place, making them well-suited for more structured deliberative processes. Larger municipalities with sophisticated civil service structures could support the kind of collaborative process seen in Paris.
While the Canadian context would require modifications, Chwalisz demonstrates how the Paris model could lead to long-term, transformative change in Canada. Success won’t come from creating parallel structures but by deeply integrating citizen deliberation into existing governmental processes.
A landmark example
The Paris Citizens' Assembly has redefined how we can integrate citizens into policymaking. By ensuring that citizens’ voices are not just heard, but are an active part of law-making, Paris has set a landmark example for other cities and countries to follow.
As Canadian cities continue to experiment with deliberative democracy, the Paris model is proving to be a promising path forward - one that blends citizen-driven innovation with political practicality that is now creating meaningful, lasting change.
Watch Claudia Chwalisz discussing the highlights of the paper in the 10 minute film above, which was presented at a conference in Vancouver.
You can also read Conversation Networks by DemNext International Advisory Council Members, Deb Roy, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Co-Founder, Cortico, Audrey Tang, Mozilla Foundation, Project Liberty Institute, and supported by funding from the Omidyar Network, Lawrence Lessig, Professor, Harvard Law.
📡 Watch, read & listen
👀 Watch DemNext’s International Advisory Council Member, Deb Roy, in conversation with Baratunde Thurston on how AI can save democracy.
👥 Last week, DemNext’s International Advisory Council Member, Jon Alexander and Baratunde Thurston released a story-a-day showcasing communities citizening in times where formal systems of self-governance are under attack. Learn more here.
🌳Darkmatter Labs have published an update on their Living Stewardship Agreement, a project we highlighted in our More-Than-Human-Governance paper.
📖 Read Democracy R&D’s annual report on key trends, deliberative democracy and the network, involving DemNext’s Senior Advisor, Ieva Česnulaitytė, and International Advisory Council Member Felipe Rey.
👂Listen to DemNext’s CEO Claudia Chwalisz on KQED Radio. During this youth takeover, they discuss how deliberative democracy and reason is at the centre of decision making.
🐝 Upcoming events
April 30th, Copenhagen
Claudia Chwalisz, CEO of DemNext, will deliver a keynote address titled “The Voice of Future Generations: From Megaprojects to Local Green Transitions” at an upcoming conference hosted by We Do Democracy, the University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet), and Udviklingsselskabet By & Havn.
May 15th, London
Lucy Reid, COO of DemNext, will be speaking at the Museums and Heritage Show alongside Rob Lewis, Director of Transformation. They will present Citizen power: from the irrelevance of, to pride in, museums, in relation to our recent involvement with Birmingham Museums Trust’s 2024 citizens’ assembly - more on that next week!
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