Citizens' Assembly on Brexit

脱欧进程是英国政体几十年来面临的最大一系列决定。鉴于决策的重要性和重要性，决策必须满足两个条件。首先，它应该尊重和回应民意：这既是民主原则的要求，也是公共合法性的需要。其次，应该仔细考虑这一过程：应该清楚地理解各种选择及其对社会所有部分的影响，并仔细规划优先事项。拟议的项目旨在通过创建一个关于英国退欧的公民大会来推进这些目标，从而为英国退欧进程做出重大而独特的贡献。我们将把议会与政府和议会围绕英国退欧正在进行的工作联系起来，向广大公众公布其工作和建议。通过这样做，该项目将促进人们对如何更好地全面推进民主实践的理解。在英国退欧问题上，有效决策的条件可能无法满足。选民们被问到他们是否想要英国退欧，但不是他们想要采取什么形式。议会--通常是公众监督的场所--让人感到束手无策，因为众所周知，它包含了支持留欧的多数派，因此有可能激怒公众。许多留欧人士仍然希望英国退欧能够被阻止，他们不愿建设性地参与到英国退欧应该采取的形式的问题上。一些“脱欧派”担心延长谈判可能会带来逆转的风险，他们坚持认为事情比实际情况要简单。公众辩论往往是两极分化和扭曲的。对这些问题的理想回应是建立一个涵盖整个选民的审议过程。但这在财务上和实际操作上都是不可能的。最接近的说法是公民大会：从一般人口中随机挑选(但有分层)的公民团体，代表社会的多样性，并在一段时间内会面，了解问题，听取关于问题的广泛观点，深入审议，并得出结论。该项目团队结合了学术界和民间社会的专业知识，包括ESRC资助的民主问题项目的成员，该项目在2015年运营了两个试点公民大会，并随后赢得了政治研究协会2016年的民主创新奖。我们寻求在该项目和后续的Better全民公投倡议(也是由ESRC资助的)的专业知识和经验教训的基础上，就英国脱欧问题成立公民大会。我们预计公民大会将有45名成员，他们将广泛代表英国民众。分层将被用来在性别、年龄、居住地、社会阶层和对英国退欧的态度等标准方面提供最大可能的代表性。大会将在两个周末举行会议。成员们将了解英国退欧的各种选择，讨论自己的观点，听取广泛的专家和活动人士的意见，仔细研究他们所听到的，并起草建议。他们还可以在周末之间进行在线交流。大会将提交一份报告，在政策制定者和评论员中广泛分发，在一次引人注目的活动中推出，并通过传统和社会媒体进行宣传。首先是利用久经考验的公民大会模式，提供英国退欧谈判者、议员和所有参与英国退欧辩论的人所需要的东西：深入了解关于英国退欧应该采取的形式的民意。第二是利用这一机会审查有关公民大会的两个悬而未决的问题：能否以及如何在现有激烈和两极分化的辩论背景下成功地利用公民大会；是否以及如何确保多样化和有代表性的成员。该项目经过精心设计，以充分实现这些目标。

The process of leaving the EU presents the biggest set of decisions faced by the UK polity for decades. Given its prominence and importance, decision-making must satisfy two conditions. First, it should respect and respond to public opinion: both democratic principle and the need for public legitimacy demand this. Second, the process should be carefully considered: the options and their implications for all parts of society should be clearly understood and priorities carefully weighed.The proposed project is designed to advance these goals - and thereby to make a major and distinctive contribution to the Brexit process - by creating a Citizens' Assembly on Brexit. We will link the Assembly to ongoing work around Brexit in government and parliament and publicize its work and recommendations to the public at large. In so doing, the project will advance understanding of how democratic practice might best be furthered in general.There are dangers that the conditions for effective decision-making on Brexit might not be met. Voters have been asked whether they want Brexit, but not what form they want it to take. Parliament - the usual location for public scrutiny - feels hamstrung because it is known to contain a pro-Remain majority and so risks public anger. Many 'Remainers', still hoping Brexit can be stopped, are reluctant to engage constructively with the question of the form it should take. Some 'Leavers', worried that extended negotiations might create a risk of reversal, insist that matters are simpler than they are. Public debates are often polarized and distorted.The ideal response to these problems would be to create a deliberative process encompassing the whole electorate. But this is impossible, both financially and practicably. The closest approximation is a citizens' assembly: a body of citizens who are selected randomly (but with stratification) from the general population to represent the diversity of society and who meet over a period of time to learn about the issues, hear a wide range of perspectives on them, deliberate in depth, and reach conclusions. The project team combines expertise from academia and civil society, including members of the ESRC-funded Democracy Matters project, which ran two pilot citizens' assemblies in 2015 and went on to win the Political Studies Association's 2016 Democratic Innovation Award. We seek to build upon the expertise developed and lessons learnt by that project and the follow-on Better Referendum initiative, also ESRC-funded, to deliver a Citizens' Assembly on Brexit.We expect the Assembly to have 45 members who will be broadly representative of the UK population. Stratification will be used to provide the greatest possible representativeness in terms of criteria such as gender, age, place of residence, social class, and attitudes to Brexit. The Assembly will meet over two weekends. Members will learn about the options for Brexit, discuss their own perspectives, hear from a wide range of experts and campaigners, deliberate on what they have heard, and draw up recommendations. They will also be able to engage online between the weekends. The Assembly will deliver a report that will be widely circulated among policy-makers and commentators, launched at a high-profile event, and promoted through traditional and social media.The project will pursue two objectives. The first is to use the well-tested citizens' assembly model to deliver what is needed by Brexit negotiators, parliamentarians, and all engaged in the Brexit debate: a deep insight into informed public opinion on the form that Brexit should take. The second is to use this opportunity to examine two unanswered questions regarding citizens' assemblies: whether and how they can be used successfully in the context of existing intense and polarized debate; and whether and how a diverse and representative membership can be secured. The project is carefully designed to advance these objectives to the full.