> One of the most striking features of the French Climate Citizens’ Assembly is that it was initiated by the Gilets Citoyens, a civil society collective bringing together the Gilets Jaunes and climate activists. Unlikely bed fellows, but united in their desire to transfer power from politicians to people. The Pew Research also found that giving power to people instead of politicians was popular across the ideological spectrum.
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> We are in my view about 30 years into the third great democratic struggle. The first was for universal suffrage, the right for all adults to vote; the second was civil rights; and the third is the right for citizens to make policy themselves. Each of these struggles is ongoing. Universal suffrage campaigns were initiated in the mid 1800s and took around 60 years to come to fruition; there are now powerful arguments being made, notably by David Runciman, for allowing children to vote. The civil rights movement is clearly still in full swing, as the George Floyd protests of 2020 bear testimony. And I believe the movement pushing for Citizens’ Assemblies as a fix to everything from air quality to social care is simply a proxy for the third great democratic struggle to give people, not politicians, the right to make decisions.