[ONLINE] Democracy Beyond Elections

Join New America’s Political Reform program, Columbia World Projects, and FIDE - North America on September 26th from 11 am to 12 pm EST for a panel discussion with international practitioners who have designed and implemented citizens’ assemblies at the local, regional, and national levels. This webinar will explore the unique promise and potential challenges of implementing citizens’ assemblies in the United States, exploring questions of how to amplify the voices and preferences of citizens in ways that go beyond the opportunities presented by elections and our current representative institutions.

We will hear from Iain Walker, Executive Director at the newDemocracy Foundation; Kenza Occansey, Vice President of Citizen Participation at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) in France; and Jonathan Moskovic, Advisor at Democratic Innovations. They will share their experiences using citizens’ assemblies as a tool to deepen democracy and strengthen citizen engagement across Europe and Australia.

The discussion will be moderated by Hollie Russon Gilman, Senior Fellow at the Political Reform Program.

This event is part of a series in collaboration with Columbia World Projects and FIDE - North America, aimed at uncovering the opportunities and challenges of employing citizens’ assemblies in the United States. These virtual discussions with leading researchers and civic practitioners offer students and practitioners of deliberative democracy and all those interested in strengthening democratic practice insights into both the transformative potential and limits to this increasingly popular form of deliberative decision making. Future webinars focusing on the use of assemblies will take place later this Fall.