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

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