Can citizen assemblies make a difference to constitutional reform?: Some lessons from Ireland

Sarah Sorial

doi:10.22459/ACNI.2023.13

Can citizen assemblies make a difference to constitutional reform? Some lessons from Ireland

Sarah Sorial

Macquarie Law School

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

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Abstract

This paper examines their effectiveness at improving citizens’ democratic literacy about constitutional issues. Using the recent assemblies conducted in Ireland on marriage equality and abortion as case studies, I argue that CAs, when designed in the right way and connected to the wider public sphere, are effective at improving deliberation about constitutional reform at least two significant ways. First, they are effective at developing the democratic literacy of both participants and the voting public. Second, they can help foster a constitutional culture by giving citizens ownership over constitutional issues, irrespective of a referendum outcome. For these reasons, the Irish experiments in deliberation could be instructive in the Australian context, where lack of democratic literacy among the voting public, and disengagement with

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Australian Constitution and national identity
Editors	Anna Olijnyk, Alexander Reilly
Place of Publication	Canberra
Publisher	ANU Press
Chapter	13
Pages	273-300
Number of pages	28
ISBN (Electronic)	9781760465643
ISBN (Print)	9781760465636
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.22459/ACNI.2023.13
Publication status	Published - 2023

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Publisher 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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10.22459/ACNI.2023.13

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 3.98 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11930983.16

Cite this

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Can citizen assemblies make a difference to constitutional reform? Some lessons from Ireland

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