Next Generation Checks & Balances Project
This project has two components: 1) state constitutional conventions and 2) electoral reform juries (including solonic, citizen assembly, and redistricting juries). Both constitutional conventions and electoral reform juries are institutional vehicles to address elected officials' conflict of interest in instituting democratic reform.
State Constitutional Convention Project
This project was launched in January 2010. It seeks to repurpose the state constitutional convention as a vehicle for dealing with democratic reform issues where elected officials have a conflict of interest. A statewide ballot item to convene a state constitutional convention was held in Maryland on November 2, 2010 and received 54.4% of the popular vote. In 2010, four states had constitutional convention referendums on their ballots. a historic high in U.S. history. In 2012, an additional three states will have constitutional convention referendums on their ballots. For additional details on Maryland's 2010 state constitutional referendum, see www.MarylandConCon.org.
Publications
Snider, J.H., Con-con promise comes due for O’Malley , Washington Post, November 14, 2010.
Snider, J.H., and Alan Tarr, A Historic Year for State Con-Cons, Huffington Post, October 12, 2010.
Snider, J.H., The road to term limits in Maryland: A constitutional convention is the state’s best chance for reform, Baltimore Sun, September 22, 2010.
Snider, J.H., Maryland's Fake Open Government, Washington Post, April 18, 2010.
Snider, J.H., Maryland's Ballot Surprise, Baltimore Sun, January 8, 2010.
Electoral Reform Jury Project (including citizen assemblies and redistricting juries)
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News Digest:
Recent Publication: |
All new ideas are justifiably treated with great suspicion. With the completion of citizens assemblies in British Columbia (Canada), the Netherlands, and Ontario (Canada), what was a radical idea in 2003--before the first citizens assembly was launched in British Columbia--now seems much more mainstream and attainable.
The most prominent political leaders to support citizens assemblies have come out of Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. iSolon.org does not necessarily support any of these initiatives, but it does seek to track them and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their proposed features from the standpoints of democratic theory and real world practicality.
iSolon.org views citizens assemblies as part of a much larger set of innovations it calls "electoral reform juries." A citizens assembly from this perspective is characterized as an intermediate cost electoral reform jury. iSolon.org's proposed ad hoc "redistricting jury" is characterized as a type of low cost electoral reform jury, and its proposed standing "solonic jury" a high cost electoral reform jury. For an overview of iSolon.org's conceptual framework, see If Men Were Angels....: Should the Checks & Balances System Include Electoral Reform Juries?, a working paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 5, 2009. iSolon.org's redistricting jury proposal was featured at a May 4, 2009 conference co-sponsored by iSolon.org and the Hudson Institute.
Much
of the current interest in citizens assembly based democratic reform is
driven by the observation that incumbent lawmakers have an inherent
conflict of interest in passing electoral reforms that have a
direct bearing on their re-election prospects. The citizens
assembly, which is democratically representative of the general
population but is chosen by lot rather than election, holds the promise
of avoiding this type of conflict of interest
iSolon.org's Electoral Reform Jury Project analyzes democratic reform areas where elected officials have such a conflict of interest and suggests when and how a citizens assembly or related democratic reform can help address the conflict of interest problem.
iSolon.org's Electoral Reform Project reports on citizens assembly developments throughout the world. Those who want news of citizens assembly developments should subscribe to the free Citizens Assembly News Digest, which is emailed to democratic reform activists and scholars in more than a dozen countries. Depending on the amount of news to report, this Digest is generally sent out several times a year.
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Praise for iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly Work: "This is the best source for up to date information and
commentary about one of the most important institutional innovations in modern
democracy."
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Reporting on Citizens Assembly developments is a joint project with iSolon.org's readers. iSolon.org carefully monitors the print press and blogosphere for reports on citizen assemblies, but it also gets much of its most valuable information from its readers. If you believe you have information that would be of interest to this global community of scholars and activists, please consider emailing it to CitizensAssemblyNewsDigest@iSolon.org.
iSolon.org knows there are many other efforts, including deliberative
opinion polls and citizen juries (as well as conventional judicial
juries), to use randomly selected bodies of citizens for democratic
purposes. But it reserves the term electoral reform jury and its
variants to randomly selected bodies
with official government powers and with a jurisdiction limited to
democratic reform; that is, to areas where elected officials have a
direct conflict of interest.
Publications on Redistricting Juries
Maryland's Ballot Surprise (the web version can be found here), Baltimore Sun, January 8, 2010.
If Men Were Angels....: Should the Checks & Balances System Include
Electoral Reform Juries?
(working paper presented at the Representation and Electoral Systems
Division's theme panel, Citizens' Assemblies and Deliberative
Democracy, at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science
Association, Toronto, Canada, September 5, 2009).
The Case for Redistricting Juries: Lessons from British Columbia’s
Revolutionary Experiment in Democratic Reform
(working paper presented at a conference
cosponsored by the Hudson Institute and iSolon.org on May 4, 2009; the
APSA working paper above provides a more up-to-date and rigorous
treatment of the same subject).
Publications on Citizen Assemblies
If Men Were Angels....: Should the Checks & Balances System Include
Electoral Reform Juries?
(working paper presented at the Representation and Electoral Systems
Division's theme panel, Citizens' Assemblies and Deliberative
Democracy, at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science
Association, Toronto, Canada, September 5, 2009).
Using Citizens Assemblies to Reform the Process of Democratic Reform
(working paper published by the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein
Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, July 14, 2008)
Canada Steps
on the World Stage as a Democratic Reformer
(concluding
remarks at the Harvard University Canada Program's conference on
democratic deficits and citizens assemblies, May 8-10, 2008,
published in the Journal of Public Deliberation, May 2008)
Designing Deliberative Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
(review of the first major book to be written about citizens assemblies,
published in the Journal of Public Deliberation, May 2008)
Citizens Assembly Policy Brief
(May 2007)
Citizens Assembly Policy Paper
(published in the
National Civic Review, January 2006)
Citizens Assembly Fact Sheet
(British
Columbia, Netherlands, Ontario)
Original Citizens Assembly Blog
(replaced by this website and the
Citizens Assembly News Digest in January 2008)
Citizens Assembly Digest & Facebook Group
(To click on a link below, click and hold down the mouse button. The link will move right. Watch where it goes, then point to it and release the mouse button. Sorry about this inconvenience.)
Citizens Assembly News Digest
(The Citizens Assembly News Digest has been superceded by the
Facebook group below).
Citizens Assembly Facebook Group
(provides a chronological listing of citizens' assembly events
and a wall to post citizens assembly information)
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the Citizens Assembly News Digest
Click here to subscribe to the Citizens Assembly News Digest
To unsubscribe from the Citizens Assembly News Digest,
please send an
email to
CitizensAssembly@iSolon.org with the word "unsubscribe" in the
subject line.
External Resources Archive
(this has not been maintained since summer 2008)
Government Reports & Legislation
