MODEL CITIZEN ASSEMBLIES
A Model Citizen Assembly telescopes the typical 2-week Citizens’ Assembly Agenda into a 3-hour event. A Jury representing different ages, ethnicity's etc. of a community meet online or in-person with an audience to consider arguments for and against a specific solution to a local or global problem and find out where consensus lies – then take action on it.
INTRODUCTION
What is a Model Citizen Assembly ?
A Model Citizen Assembly(MCA) enables concerned citizens of all ages and backgrounds to explore together the Existential Threats to our Future that need to be resolved in the lifetimes of the generation currently passing through our schools and university. Like a full-dress Citizens’ Assembly, it is a kind of “Jury Duty for the Planet,” each one exploring different solutions to those existential threats, and seeking consensus amongst the different citizens on the most promising one.
An MCA telescopes the 2 or 3-week process of a full-dress Citizens’ Citizens’ Assembly into a 3-hour period. It brings together a Jury of 10-30 citizens representing the different ages, ethnicity's, gender, economic well-being etc.) + an audience of interested observers to listen to, and question, witnesses who present arguments for different solutions to the existential problem being explored.
A Model Citizen Assembly(MCA) can explore any issue – from putting a water fountain in a park, recycling bins around a school, to the existential threats that could wipe out humanity for ever that we explore here. The purpose of every Assembly is identical: to enable communities, and individuals, to come to informed decisions on challenging issues. They are a whole lot more simple to organise and manage than the Model UNs for which MCAs are designed as an alternative. They allow participants to deep dive into a single issue. You simply have to follow these steps:
- Choose your Theme – a local or global threat and a plausible solution / solutions to it;
- Appoint a Jury – 10 to 20 persons chosen to reflect the composition of your community;
- Recruit an Audience – anyone who’s interested (as many as possible);
- Appoint or Train your Expert Witnesses. (three to five)
- Run your MCA – and follow up your informed decision with ACTION
In a school setting, Step Three should involve training up a group of students to present a different solution, or each side of the argument if a single solution is being debated at the Assembly. This is where the real learning can take place and, as with the MUN, the students themselves should take responsibility for researching in depth the arguments they are presenting. This has the added value of giving the young people a sense of ownership of the Assembly and, hopefully, empowers them to take Step Four and act on the informed decision the Assembly reaches. Equally, it’s possible to appoint outside experts – elders who are passionate and informed about the field. Or use imported TED talk-style videos on the topic under discussion. Or you may decide to use local community leaders or teachers who are informed and authoritative about the issues. If the steps are handled effectively and thoroughly, we, at Peace Child, have no doubt that a Model Citizen Assembly can be one of the finest, concentrated learning experiences a school or community can ever undertake.
STEP ONE: CHOOSE YOUR ISSUE
EXISTENTIAL THREATS
Peace Child International encourages schools and communities to host MCAs that deal with “existential threats” to the future of life on earth. So - what are these Existential Threats? In his landmark book, 'Factfulness', Professor Hans Rosling famously explains why the world and the human family is in much better shape than most of us think it is – an optimism we in Peace Child seek to promote to all young people. However, at the end of the book, he describes Five Global Risks we need to be worried about:
- Global pandemics
- Financial collapse
- World War
- Climate emergency – and –
- Extreme poverty
Risks 2 and 5, though serious, do not actually threaten the existence of the human race or the natural eco-systems on which we depend for life. And if we include them, we have to include many others: inequality – particularly gender inequality; racism; terrorism; the arms trade; biodiversity loss; desertification; growth-based economics etc. The list is endless – and we encourage others to explore them.
For Peace Child International, existential threats unite us. Just as HG Wells pointed out in War of the Worlds that invasion by people from another planet would unite people and nations quicker than anything else, so the 3 x threats explored here should unite all peoples – transcending barriers of race, religion, nationality, gender, economics, lifestyle – Everything! For we ALL face each of these 3 x threats together.
- Global Pandemics: the Coronavirus is a very benign pandemic. It kills only about 1% of those infected. In 1918, Spanish Flu killed 10% of those infected. Ebola killed 90% of those who caught the disease. A global pandemic of a disease like Ebola could, therefore, wipe out humanity. Protecting ourselves against that eventuality, which science warns will happen at some point,is a massive priority for every nation, individual and family on our planet.
- All-out Nuclear World War: leaders of nuclear weapons states tell us that it is only the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction(MAD) in a nuclear war that has kept the world at peace these last 75 years. But it remains suicidal or ‘omni-cidal’ for humanity: quite simply mad! Nuclear weapons serve no military purpose: Earl Mountbatten was the first of many military commanders who pointed that out. Environmentalist, George Monbiot,described them, memorably, as “as much use to a soldier as a jack-hammer is to a watch-maker.” Humanity has banned landmines and poison gas: surely it makes sense,now,to ban weapons that run the risk of vaporising all of us?
- The Climate Emergency: this is perhaps the most dangerous, and insidious, threat to our existence. Science tells us that, unless we change our lifestyles and wean ourselves off our addiction to fossil fuel energy, – unless we embrace wholeheartedly the challenge of a Green New Deal – life, by the end of the 21st century will become very uncomfortable for our children and grand-children. Island states will disappear; large areas of Tropical land will become too hot to live in; droughts, forest fires and extreme weather will bring structural famine to much of humanity making normal life impossible. But, just as the frog settles comfortably into warming water until it boils and kills him, so humanity is afflicted by thinking: “We can handle this…” – settling comfortably into unsustainable lifestyles which will, eventually, kill us.
Schools and communities do not do enough to educate us all about these threats. Peace Child Intl. encourages you to use the MCA mechanism to educate your students – and your whole community – about these threats to our existence. and make informed decisions on what we have to do to reduce, and eventually, to eliminate them.
STEP TWO: RECRUIT JURY & AUDIENCE
RECRUITMENT
Jury Recruitment is the hardest challenge you face in hosting an MCA: professional bodies charge governments hundreds of thousands of pounds / dollars – to recruit balanced juries that accurately reflect the different sectors a country’s population. Census data provides all the information that you need to know about those different sectors. You can find the UK’s latest Census data here:
But our advice is: don’t get too hung up on this. This is a MODEL Assembly – and, as long as you have roughly half male / half female, half under 40 / half over 40 + a mix of different professions and ethnicity's, you’re doing the job. You can simplify our draft application form down to a handful of questions. But, you should avoid having too many of one opinion on the issue under discussion: on the nuclear question, we struggled to balance out the peace campaigners – who were eager to jump on board, with the supporters of nuclear weapons. (NATO continues to refuse to come to an MCA to explain why they instructed their member states to boycott the UN discussions on TPNW.) That’s why Recruitment is hard: it requires a lot of leg-work, persistence, and arm-twisting.
There are many admirable resources to help school and community MCA organisers of Model Citizen’s Assembly undertake the preparation and management of their Assembly:
- Extinction Rebellion’s Guide to Citizens’ Assemblies is perhaps the most useful one to read. Even though it’s focus is exclusively on climate and ecological justice, their approach expresses the passion that we share about the principle of engaging citizens in decisions that affect their own survival, and the survival of all life on this planet. XR’s approach is well-thought out and includes excellent historical perspectives on other Citizens’ Assemblies around the world. This is invaluable background information to anyone planning an MCA.
- The Innovation in Democracy Programme of the Dept. of Culture Media and Sport published a detailed booklet: “How to run a Citizens’ Assembly” for Local Authorities. It provides a useful contrast to the XR approach as it shows how governments approach the CA Challenge. Their website: https://www.involve.org.uk/ has many valuable tips and tools from the organisers of some of the largest deliberative democracy events that have happened in the UK. Citizens’ Assemblies are only one of the approaches that Involve.org is testing. Their Recruitment approach is the one used by most planners: “The people who take part are chosen so that they reflect the wider population – in terms of demographics (eg. Age, gender, ethnicity, social class) and relevant attitudes (eg. Prior knowledge of, or opinions about, the issue to be discussed.)”
- Scotland’s first Citizens’ Assembly organisers explain that they will “…randomly recruit more than 100 Assembly members, aged 16 and over, who are broadly representative of the adult population in Scotland today. Members will be profiled against a range of criteria to ensure they are broadly representative according to geography, age, gender, ethnic group, educational qualifications and limiting long term conditions/disability.”
A Model Citizens’ Assembly(MCA) builds on all this experience. Even though an MCA’s main purpose is educational and many will happen in schools, an MCA Jury must be balanced in exactly the same way as actual Citizens’ Assemblies – and it is, of course, fine to include students under 16: 10-11 year olds should be invited if they are interested. MCAs can be run in school time by getting students to research the feelings of different demographic sections of their community, and adopting their persona in the Assembly – in much the same way as students adopt the personality of different UN Member States in a Model UN. But we feel that this is a bit fraudulent. Instead, we urge you to set up your MCA as an extra-curricular activity in an evening, or at a week-end, and get your students to drag along their parents, grand-parents and other friends and family members to serve on the jury – representing the employed / unemployed, director level / shop floor level, community members etc. Students and staff should encourage others to join the audience to create a grand community occasion.
Look at the demographics (make-up) of your community – and create an Application Form that accurately reflects your local reality. That’s the beauty of a Citizens’ Assembly: it can reflect your community as it actually is – not as some remote government bureaucrat would like it to be!
Whether you are doing the Assembly online or physically, we encourage you to use FREE Google Forms software. You will need to create your own forms – and we encourage you to think up new questions that you feel will enrich the learning experience ( – but not too many, or your audience / jury will find them intrusive and lose interest.) The following list of questions can be used as a starting point:
JURY APPLICATION FORM:
- First and Last Name:
- Email address:
- Gender:
- Age:
- Where you live – Urban / Rural
- Household Income per year:
- Net Worth / Amount of Savings:
- Educational Attainment:
- Employment Status: Employed / Unemployed/Student/Retired:
- If employed, which kind of job:
- Political Affiliation?
- Religious Affiliation? If Yes, which?
- Ethnicity – how do you identify yourself?
- Prior knowledge: (eg. How aware are you of the issue?)
- Prior Judgement: have you formed an opinion on the question raised by this Citizens’ Assembly? Yes – No – Don’t Know
- Might you be persuaded to change your answer? Yes – No – Don’t Know
- If you had the chance to ask ONE question before the Assembly about the issue under discussion, what would it be? (up to 50 words)
AUDIENCE APPLICATION FORM:
- First and Last Name:
- Email address:
- Gender:
- Age:
- Prior knowledge: (eg. How aware are you of the issue?)
- If you had the chance to ask ONE question before the Assembly about the issue under discussion, what would it be? (up to 50 words)
STEP
THREE: RECRUIT & TRAIN WITNESSES
TRAINING
As noted in the introduction, in a genuine Peace Child
MCA, you train up a group of students and / or community members to be your
“Expert Witnesses.” We strongly recommend that you mirror the intergenerational
ethos of the MCA process by having witnesses of different ages. On a topic like
the Global Pandemics – where there are multiple right answers – they can work
as a team, sharing the fruits of their research and deciding who is going to
present which parts. On a topic where there are “YES / NO” answers, like
“Should your country join the
TPNW?” or “Should we criminalise the use of fossil fuels?” – they
should work in two teams being respectfully competitive in their searches for
the most compelling arguments and evidence.
We suggest “no more than THREE” expert witnesses to each
side. That is THREE presenters on each side = total 6. That is already a
large panel – and it means that, in a 30-minute witness statement section, each
presenter only gets 5-minutes. Which is fine. But many more people can be
involved in the preparatory work: we encourage schools and communities to
involve as many students and community members in the research and analyse the
data for each topic. That research can become a classroom exercise – or a project
for different year groups. Or for a sub-committee of the PTA or Board of
Governors. As we stress: the purpose of an MCA is to provide a rich learning
experience for both presenters and audience – and the more involved in the
witness training research, the richer the learning.
The most challenging part for the expert witnesses comes
in the 45-minute Q & A section. No expert witness can ever plan for every
question that a jury or audience member may throw at them. However – to
minimise this challenge, we urge you to use our Application Forms to get every
jury and audience applicant to ask ONE question before the
MCA. In the pilot, this produced a list of questions which –
1) helped the expert witnesses prepare their
statements; –
and –
2) helped the Host by having some pre-prepared
questions to fire at the Witnesses at the start of the Q & A – once
she had seen which of the Jury / Audience questions the expert witnesses had
NOT fully answered in their statements.
Finally, the Witness Training must include time to
research and brainstorm what Actions the Experts would propose for the Next
Steps section of the MCA. Not every MCA needs to bring back the Experts
to this section – but it helps if they do. And, whether you have won or lost,
or whether your priority recommendation has come top or bottom – it is
important for the Experts to buy into the logic that this is the beginning of
the journey to resolve the existential threats humanity faces – and that, thus,
Next Steps are crucial.
How to Recruit? – First – make the decision
on whether or not to have Multi-Generational witness groups. As teachers, we
know it is much easier to manage a class in front of you – rather than a mixed
group of students / outside community members. So – probably best to have
the students lead on the research, as in an MUN – empowering them with the
responsibility of seeking out parents, friends and relations who can provide
them with the intergenerational element of the Witness Panel.
How to Train? – it starts with a Reading
List – of physical books and websites. Again, to empower the witnesses and help
them feel ownership of the MCA, get them to compile the Reading List – which
should be a single one for the ‘multiple right answer’ MCA – but can be two
lists for the “YES/NO” topics. Phone or Zoom conversations with NGOs, academics
and other experts / professionals working in the field under discussion is also
valuable. Again, get the trainees to prepare a Contact List – and decide
on which group of researchers is going to do which interview. Require them to
record notes – and write up the interview in some detail to share with the
whole group.
Outside Experts: – it is equally possible to
appoint outside experts – elders who are passionate and informed about the
field. You will have some such individuals in your school or community –
teachers, local politicians, NGO leaders, doctors, lawyers, retired people etc.
– with a special interest / experience in the issue being discussed by the
MCA. Talk to people – find out what lifelong advocates for environmental,
peace or medical causes may exist in your community. Invite them in or go visit
them as sources of research material and evidence as part of the Expert Witness
training, Or you can use imported TED talk-style videos on the
topic under discussion or even extracts from documentaries that explain the
issue under discussion. ( - though, in
Peace Child, we always feel that live witnesses are best: you can’t ask
questions of videos!)
Do take time on this
section: at least a month or – better – a school term. Have weekly meetings of
the Expert Witness team to share findings and build their arguments. It should
be an exciting self-generated learning experience for both students and elders
within your community. Don’t rush it!
STEP FOUR: RUN YOUR MCA
ONLINE / PHYSICAL?
In Planning Your MCA, the first decision you have to make is whether to have it online or physical? There are advantages to both approaches and it may be possible to use a combination of the two. You decide. At Peace Child, we developed the MCA concept during the time of Coronavirus, so an online approach was the only one possible. A Step-by-Step Schedule of Work for an online MCA is as follows:
Step ONE: Choose Your Platform, Date and your online management system: (We recommend Zoom)
Step TWO: Recruit Your Jury & Audience:
Step THREE: Create a Technical Schedule for your MCA;
Step FOUR: Send round a follow-up email to all participants – identifying agreed Next Steps;
For a Physical MCA, the steps are pretty much the same, with differences as follows:
Step ONE: Choose Your Location, Date and your online management system: (Section to be completed)
Step TWO: Recruit Your Jury & Audience:
Step THREE: Plan a precise movement order for your entire event. We suggest the following:
Step FOUR: Send round a follow-up email to all participants – identifying agreed Next Steps;
We recommend that, for both approaches, you should use a TRELLO management system board, and store all the data / information on Google Docs. (Feel free to copy information and links from this website.)
AGENDA
The following elements of the MCA agenda should be handled thus:
Agreed Historical Summary: it’s vital for ALL witnesses from all sides of the Assembly topic agree this. Everyone – Witnesses, Host & Secretary, Audience & Jury – must start from the same basic knowledge;
Witness Statements: Each witness – or team of witnesses – must be allowed 15-20 minutes uninterrupted time to present their arguments. This can be done with or without PowerPoint.
Questioning the Witnesses: For speed and brevity, we suggest the host put all questions to the Witnesses. Though possible in both online and physical MCAs to have jury members ask their own questions, the questioners may give speeches – grand-standing their views. Though fine in day- or week-long Citizens’ Assemblies, this costs precious time. To avoid this, start by inviting Jury and Audience members to ask ONE question in their application form. Send these to the Witnesses so that they can answer some of them in their statements. Also create a digest of them for the Host – so that s/he can ask the first questions from this digest / pre-Assembly list that the Witnesses have failed to answer. There-after, stewards and/or the Secretary, can gather written questions from the Jury in a Physical Assembly. Or, in an online Assembly, gather questions on the chat facility and get the jury/audience to ‘up-vote’ the questions they are most interested in. The host can then put all new questions to the Witnesses.
Deliberation – Listing – Weighting: Deliberation in a Jury Room involves jury members working to reach consensus. There is no formal, agreed process. You can do that with an MCA: run a completely unstructured, random exchange of views – leaving the jury members to move towards consensus, argue and wax polemical as they wish. Or you can be surgically methodical:
1. Write up a LIST of the arguments / Points that the Jury, and audience, remember from each Witness. Make lists on 3 x Separate columns: 1. FOR; 2. AGAINST; 3. OTHER;
2. Then WEIGHT each point / argument by assessing the support for each in the Jury / Audience;
3. Do this Online by up-voting each on the Chat;
4. Do this at a Physical MCA by asking for a show of hands on each point;
5. ADD UP the points given to each argument;
Though in no way is this supposed to replace the conscience of individual jury members, it will help them assess which arguments carry the most weight amongst their community and peers;
Next Steps: Use the same method of gathering written ideas for Action, on the chat or on paper, and the same up-voting / show of hands system to agree priorities for next steps. As organisers, we would always encourage individuals who have enjoyed the MCA process to spread the word: offer one obvious Next Step which is to plan and host another MCA on a chosen topic that is important to your community. Give out the URL of this website for this purpose.
STEP FIVE: PRACTICAL NEXT STEPS
FOLLOW UP
A Citizens’ Assembly should never be advertised as an end in itself: rather it should be a start of a journey. A journey of Activism; a journey of Advocacy; – and a journey of further Learning. All three should be discussed in the final 20 minutes of the Assembly – and the points emerging should be summarised in a follow-up email / letter to every jury and audience member.
It is important to distinguish between Advocacy and Activism: they are similar – but different.
Advocacy is often seen as working “within the system” whereas activism is seen as working “outside the system” to generate change. Advocacy is often thought of as “an act of publicly representing an individual, organisation, or idea” and used as an umbrella term for active lobbying methods such as: letter writing, meeting politicians, running public forums, questions in parliament, participating in various consultative processes. An MCA is NOT Advocacy – as it is designed to explore all sides of an issue – and come to an informed decision that can then be advocated for.
Advocacy is -
- Arguing in favour of a cause,idea,or policy by communicating directly with decision makers
- Advocacy has 3 x key guiding principles: 1. Create relationships; 2. Develop a sound policy or policies that are viable and practical; - and – 3. Show respect to everyone you present to;
- Effective advocacy generally has a non-adversarial or soft touch approach arguing for changes in budget allocations, taxation, laws preventing types of behaviour, new policy development etc.
- Advocacy can be either pro-active or re-active – before or after a decision: which is your’s?
Activism can be viewed as a form of advocacy as it often takes the form of taking direct action to achieve a political or social goal. Activists use tactics that can alienate government and the wider community; but they can also gain support in the community as well by taking direct action in the form of protest in favour of change. ‘Activists’ are often portrayed in the media in a negative way – where advocacy and lobbying are seen as part of natural political behaviour. Activists are usually people who have given up on the normal channels of advocacy as they have been seen not to work. Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and Just Stop Oil are some of the best examples of Activism in recent years. Peace Child International stresses the imperative of NON-VIOLENCE in all Action. Examples of activism:
- The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about policy, political or social change,before, during and after decisions are being taken;
- Activism is generally based around a single issue
- Can use questionable tactics: illegal activities can be deliberate strategies (civil disobedience, non-violent direct action, chaining yourself to railings, gluing yourself to a road etc.)
- Often seeks to raise awareness of a critical issue rather than seek actual change
- Does not seek direct relationships with key decision makers, hence relies heavily on media
- The “THREE BASKET” approach to political change sees Activism in 3 x baskets: Basket 1 = change politicians of all parties support but need Activists’ nudging to get done; Basket 2 = necessary action but at the fringe of the politically possible; Basket 3 = Blue-sky thinking!)Much – perhaps most – Activism operates in the 3rd Basket;
Further Learning: Further learning could introduce a variety of things:
- An Evening Course at a local college
- An External Degree course at a local University
- A background study to support your programme of Advocacy and Activism
- Circulate to all jury and audience members an Agreed Reading List + Viewing List of the most recent writing & documentaries on the issue;
- Do another MCA