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In September 2025, Jon hosted a live event in Dublin exploring the past, present and future of one of the most exciting democratic experiments of recent times. Over the last 15 years, Ireland's Citizens' Assembly has brought nearly 600 randomly selected citizens together to deliberate on issues from abortion to marriage equality to biodiversity, before making recommendations to elected officials. Join us as we delve into what happened, how, and why - and ask whether this approach could help save democracy all over the world.
David Farrell is Chair of Politics at UCD and was part of the original We The Citizens project that preceded the Irish Constitutional Convention and the Citizens’ Assembly.Art O'Leary is chief executive at An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Electoral Commission of Ireland, the management and oversight organisation for electoral and wider democracy matters, and Secretary to the Citizens’ Assembly.
Louise Caldwell is one of the randomly selected citizens to have taken part in the Assembly, and has since joined the board of People Powered, the global advocacy organisation for participatory democracy.
No links were found in this episode’s notes.
- 0:03Becoming a Citizens Assembly member
- 1:19Irish Citizens Assembly
- 5:20Citizens Assembly
- 13:28The Irish Citizens Assembly
- 16:39Citizens' Assembly
- 17:55Citizens Assembly and the Ireland referendum
- 25:48Ireland's first Citizens Assembly
- 33:31What is the Citizen Assembly
- 39:18Citizens Assembly: The best cure for polarization
- 43:42Citizens Assembly and the future
- 51:23The German Community Parliament's Citizens Assembly
- 58:33Citizens Assembly: The Safe Space for Democracy
- 1:03:48How to Save Democracy