2024: Democracy, Elections and Deepening Deliberation

For the election lovers, and psephologists, 2024 is set to a bumper year. 

At the time of writing, at least 64 elections are due to take place over the next 12 months, with around 49% of the world’s population heading to the polls. Election season started in Taiwan on 13 January, and contests take place right the way through to the end of the year. Those that will be closely watched will be elections for the European Parliament, the US Presidency, and for the Lok Sabha in India. Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has argued 2024 is the year in which democracy “lives or dies”, and it difficult to argue against that thesis, given how high the stakes are in this age of emboldened populism. 

Elections though, are one constituent part of a healthy democracy. The truth is, in some parts of the world, they are used as devices to legitimise regimes with no commitment to democratic ideals. A one off, rigged, plebiscite, cannot obscure illiberal, illegitimate outcomes, no matter how hard authoritarian leaders try. Ostensibly, there is an election for the Supreme People’s Assembly in North Korea in April, but one suspect’s the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, which won 687 out of 687 seats back in March 2019, will do so again. 

Whilst some may term this the year of democracy, those of us concerned with the business of genuine democratic participation should focus our energy making this the year of deliberative democracy. That will require a renewed focus on embedding deliberative practices and democratic ideals into day-to-day decision making, at all levels. The former UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, recently wrote a piece supportive of citizens’ assemblies in The Times, and in that he is alighting on a new model that could buttress true liberal democracies.

Hague highlights Ireland’s citizens’ assembly on abortion in 2016 as an example of the model in action. 100 citizens drawn across a broad range of ages and backgrounds were assembled to discuss the issue of access to abortion, and to ultimately make recommendations to parliament. Citizens heard from speakers from both sides of the debate, as well as legal and medical experts to inform their opinions. Moreover, facilitators were present to ensure everyone was encouraged to speak, preventing individuals from dominating discussion and empowering people of a quieter disposition.

After five weeks of meetings, the assembly recommended unrestricted access to abortion in Ireland, which caused widespread shock when the recommendations were made. However, when the subsequent referendum on abortion took place in 2018, 66 per cent of people voted to repeal the country’s near-total ban on abortion, despite opinion polls predicting the election would come down to the wire. This shows that, if given the opportunity, citizens are more than capable of enacting democratic practices that extend beyond casting a vote every 4-5 years.

There are several initiatives that have emerged in recent years that give hope to those of us wishing to deepen democracy. Last year, DemocracyNext co-published a paper with the European University Institute outlining why the EU should establish a European Citizens’ Assembly, drawn citizens across the bloc, selected by a sortition process. Almost four years after the OECD published its seminal paper, Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions, Catching the Wave, it feels like the time has come for a body to be established in Europe and, why not, in the likes of the UK? 

On these shores we have an ecosystem of organisations, such as the Involve Foundation, the Constitution Unit at UCL, Demos, and the RSA who are actively engaged in furthering the case for the deliberative democracy. At ECF, we try to do our bit as well, by utilising sortition and deliberative facilitation on built environment projects, and we hope to see more of this throughout 2024. 

With political change in the air, 2024 is the year of elections, but why not deliberative democracy as well?