The consensus-clarifying role of deliberative mini-publics in constitutional amendment: A reply to Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh
The consensus-clarifying role of deliberative mini-publics in constitutional amendment: A reply to Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh
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协商性小公众在宪法修正案中澄清共识的作用：对奥兰·道尔和瑞秋·沃尔什的答复
DOI：
10.1093/icon/moae012
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发表时间：
2024
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Carolan E
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文献类型：
--
作者：
Carolan E
奥兰·多伊尔和雷切尔沃尔什的文章“宪法修正案和公共意志的形成：作为共识民主工具的审议迷你公众”是对爱尔兰努力将审议公民参与结构纳入宪法修正过程的文献的一个受欢迎的补充。我们同意，关于堕胎问题的公民大会在形成最终出现在爱尔兰法律中的法律的立场方面发挥了作用;但是，我们不同意提交人关于这是如何发生的。特别是，我们不认为爱尔兰的经验支持这样一种说法，即审议性的小型公众有助于建立宪法修正案的共识。相反，在爱尔兰，每一次包含审议要素的修正进程取得成功的情况下，都有明确的证据表明，公众对拟议修正案的核心内容存在着持久的预先共识。我们认为，审议迷你公众的潜在价值可能更准确地被视为共识澄清，而不是建立共识之一。虽然小公众可能不太可能创造一个新的宪法共识，但它可以在将普遍和不同的变革愿望转化为特定形式方面发挥重要的-潜在的-作用。在我们看来，这就是废除和取代爱尔兰关于堕胎的宪法立场所发生的情况。我们认为，对这一进程的仔细分析提供了具体证据，表明大会以明确和具体的方式影响了结果：其重大影响不是建立了以前没有的宪政共识，而是，我们认为，将一种具体形式的法律的变革列入议程，并凝聚各方对这种变革的支持。
Oran Doyle and Rachael Walsh’s article “Constitutional Amendment and Public Will Formation: Deliberative Mini-Publics as a Tool for Consensus Democracy” is a welcome addition to the literature on Ireland’s efforts to integrate deliberative citizen-involved structures into its constitutional amendment process. We agree that the Citizens’ Assembly on abortion played a role in shaping the legal position that ultimately emerged in Irish law; we disagree, however, with the authors’ account of how that occurred. In particular, we do not believe the Irish experience supports the claim that deliberative mini-publics help to build the consensus for constitutional amendment. On the contrary, on each occasion where amendment processes incorporating a deliberative element have succeeded in Ireland, there has been clear evidence of an enduring pre-existing public consensus over the core of the amendment proposed. We suggest that the potential value of deliberative mini-publics might more accurately be seen as one of consensus-clarifying rather than consensus-building. While a mini-public may be unlikely to create a novel constitutional consensus, it can have a significant—potentially causal—role in converting a general and disparate desire for change into a specific form. That, in our view, is what occurred with the repeal and replacement of Ireland’s constitutional position on abortion. We argue that a careful analysis of the process provides tangible evidence that the Assembly affected the outcome in clear and specific ways: its significant impact was not in creating a constitutional consensus that had previously been absent, but rather, we argue, in putting on the agenda, and coalescing support around, a specific form of legal change.