The Health Canada Policy Toolkit for Public Involvement in Decision Making

Level 4 Technique:
Constituent Assembly

What Is It?

Constituent assemblies are extra-parliamentary bodies convened to address major constitutional issues or reforms. This process allows citizens to feel as if they had a say in decision making around political reform. Constituent assemblies are increasingly being applied to a wide array of governance issues, both locally and nationally. Bringing together ordinary citizens and elected officials in a public and open process is key. Also, this process works best when it addresses a single compact issue, although suggested recommendations around reforms may be multifaceted.

How It Works

The constituent assembly consists of a number of citizen delegates and elected or appointed officials for a fixed term. Information on the main issues is usually provided at the conference and sessions should be facilitated by impartial experts on the topic (i.e. constitutional representatives).

A second form of the assembly (Community Working Group) can be applied at a regional level, consisting of citizen volunteers who undertake the job of researching and offering recommendations to a governing body. In this case, citizen volunteers offer advice to the regional council (elected officials) based on their findings. This type of assembly requires support from the elected body in order to carry out the mandate and is often initiated by government officials in order to have an external body enact necessary reforms.

When Is It Most Useful?

• when addressing single-issue-oriented topics, such as a constitutional debate
• getting citizens and elected officials together to discuss views on a particular topic
• circumstances where it is useful to educate with the intent of facilitating a meaningful discussion, particularly on governance issues
• when trying to build consensus on a controversial issue, such as making changes to the constitution or initiating government reforms.

Logistics and Limits

The constituent assembly is a formula to be used primarily on a national level, rather than for regional or local uses. However, it can be successfully adapted to regional politics, as in the case of the municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. Although the infrastructure can be initiated by a government body, the assembly needs to "take a life of its own" and be seen as independent from governing structures. Also, the process needs to be very public and open in order to generate public interest and support for the decisions.

Cost Implications

Initial start-up can be both timely and costly, but definitely worthwhile once the infrastructure is put into place.

Expectation for Feedback or Follow-Up

The assembly has to make every effort to encourage the community to participate fully and meaningfully by using a wide range of consultative methods. There is an expectation that all the research and recommendations should be published for public and government use. There is also a need for citizens to feel as if their participation counted for something; therefore, consultations may have to be ongoing.

Timelines

This is usually an ongoing process that could take upward of a year as a full-fledge commitment for public involvement. The actual assembly could be one week, or a series of smaller meetings between participants.

Potential Pitfalls

The assembly can be a labour-intensive process and, because of the amount of time required, may not generate the interest or resources necessary to maintain it. Also, if it does not gain support either by the public (seen as "top-down") or the elected officials (seen as releasing too much power), the assembly will not work. Furthermore, this particular process is not right for addressing issues that are very controversial or broad.