Dear National Governments,

Modern democracy is facing many challenges, but it also promises many opportunities. We need to update democracy to fit the urgencies, direction and trends of the 21st century. Over the last decades, our societies have modernized and advanced tremendously - so why didn’t our democratic practice evolve accordingly? Why have we not explored contemporary and creative ways and means to foster citizen participation in decision-making processes? 

We, organizations and individuals supporting new and innovative processes of democracy, call on our national governments to introduce randomly-selected citizens’ assemblies as a means of strengthening democracy and bringing citizens closer to decision-making processes. 

The number of those who no longer believe in democratic solutions in view of the great challenges of our time is constantly growing. The legitimacy of democratically elected governments suffers massively. As representatives, you have a responsibility to do everything in your power to stop the democratic downward trend. Citizens' assemblies have been shown to act as a democratic cure. Participate in saving democracy by supporting the establishment of Citizens' Assemblies and taking their results seriously.

We believe that delivering real democracy must not be a complicated task. We believe that it can be as simple as a group of everyday people across different ages, genders, educational levels and backgrounds meeting, discussing face to face, and proposing policy solutions to the central questions facing our societies

This is why we call upon you to put citizens at the center of exploring and designing proposals to the fundamental issues that are important to them. We urge you to:

• Introduce citizens’ assemblies as an integral part of citizen participation

• Allow sufficient time for independently-moderated structured debate 

• Ensure independent process moderation and management

• Make the final recommendations of the citizens’ assembly publically available 

• Give serious consideration to the proposals suggested by the citizens’ assembly and begin a process of legislative change

Experiences in Ireland, Belgium and the UK have shown that citizens’ assemblies can work and benefit the democratic process.

In the long term, society becomes more trusting of the political process as their fellow citizens have held an integral part of reviewing and preparing recommendations on ongoing legislation. 

We count on you to seize the opportunity to reinvigorate democracy by introducing citizens’ assemblies in the legislative process. 

Signed,

• Roman Huber, Mehr Demokratie
• Claudine Nierth, Bürgerrat Demokratie 
• Malcolm Oswald, Citizens Juries c.i.c.
• Philipp Verpoort, Sortition Foundation
• Dimitri Lemaire, Particitiz
• Daniela Vancic, Democracy International
• Carsten Berg, The ECI Campaign
• David Joëts, Meer Democratie België
• Andreas Müller, Now The Citizens Campaign
• David Van Reybrouck, G1000
• Niesco Dubbelboer, Meer Democratie Netherlands
• Daniel Hiekel, Allianz für WERTEorientierte Demokratie (AllWeDo e.V.)
• Graham Allen, Convener of The Citizens' Convention on UK Democracy
• Petar Markovic, ECIT Foundation
• Terrill Bouricius, retired state representative, USA
• Jean-Paul Pinon, WeCitizens - WijBurgers - NousCitoyens
• Janette Hartz-Karp, Empowering Participation
• Silvia Cervellini, Delibera Brasil
• Jane Suiter, Irish Citizens’ Assembly Project
• Harm van Dijk, G1000.nu
• Jez Hall and Peter Bryant, Shared Future CIC
• Tony Vernables, ECIT Foundation
• Erwin Mayer, mehr demokratie! österreich
• Álvaro González Pérez, AEGEE-Europe
• Linn Davis, Healthy Democracy
• Bent Noerby Bonde, Europe’s Peoples’ Forum

If you would like to join the campaign and support our open letter, please write to contact@democracy-international.org