Citizen Trials (Nuclear Power / Mining)
"Citizen Trials" or "Consensus Conferences" are a model of deliberative assembly originally from Denmark and applied in several countries of the world. The idea is that citizens are informed and can discuss a topic in depth and thus provide a non-expert point of view to the debate and the construction of policies. It consists of an open call to all citizens. Of those who register to participate, 10 to 15 participants from different backgrounds, occupations, levels of education and social classes are chosen who share a desire to study the topic and discuss it. There is also a Reference Panel, acting as experts on the subject. Experts create a report so that citizens can discuss the issue in a well-informed manner. The citizens begin the debate between them, then participate in conferences in which the Reference Panel holds presentations for the Citizen Panel and the general public. The Citizen Panel and the public can ask questions and follow the debate. Finally, the Citizen Panel prepares a report with recommendations that have as their final destination the competent institutions in the theme. The first two instances in Uruguay were organized by the Universidad de la República (UdelaR) on the issues of "Nuclear Energy" (2010) and "Mining" (2011) under the broader topic of deliberative public participation in the field of science and technology.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- only backed by a governmental program or policy
- Frequency
- single
- Mode of selection of participants
- both
- Type of participants
- citizens civil society
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields a non-binding decision
- Co-Governance
- yes
Means
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Ends
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