Equality by lot

A post by Dylan Vargas. Dylan Vargas is a Master’s Student at American University studying International Affairs Policy and Analysis. In his studies he focuses on the interplay between good governance and human rights. He has worked extensively in the Democracy space, including work in four electoral campaigns and two years with the League of Women Voters of the United States advocating for Democracy Reform. This post was written as part of a Human Rights course Vargas is taking at AU.

A Constitutional Imperative to Implement a Citizen’s Assembly Model within US Governance

Outline: The core argument of the post is that the United States should implement a Citizen’s Assembly Model to achieve a more representative and responsive form of governance, as promised by the U.S. Constitution. Current democratic mechanisms are failing to adequately reflect the diverse population they serve, leading to widespread mistrust in government institutions. The implementation of a Citizen’s Assembly — a body made up of randomly selected citizens reflecting the demographic makeup of the country — would ensure that the voices and perspectives of ordinary Americans are better represented in policy-making. This argument addresses Equality by Lot’s debates surrounding political representation, democratic legitimacy, and the crisis of public trust in government. It focuses on the US Constitution, founding documents, US polling/stats, and conversations around democratic and repressive government political theory.

American Democracy has failed to deliver on its promise, and the American people are fully aware of this. According to Pew Research Center, only 22% of Americans trust that the government will do what is right. The finding by Gallup paints an even more damning picture of public trust in our institutions; 63% lack confidence in the federal government’s ability to handle domestic issues, and 67% lack confidence in the legislative branch as a whole. The generational divide over faith in the government’s ability to tackle important issues continues to widen, with 62% of adults under 30 stating the federal government can’t solve major problems. The current mechanisms of governance and American democracy fail to respond to the needs of the people they were designed to serve. Instituting A Citizen’s Assembly Model is a bold new idea to form representative governance that better lives up to the promises within our Constitution and embodies the values of American Democracy.

The framers of the United States grounded the nation in the principle of representative
governance, as outlined in Article 4, Section 2 of the Constitution, known as the Guarantee Clause. This provision guarantees that the United States will maintain a “Republican Form of Government.” This clause ensures that the government of the United States will rely on elected representatives being responsive and responsible to the views of its people. Founding Father James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 39: “[W]e may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people” and that “it is ESSENTIAL to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it.” Unfortunately, our current government is dominated by an “inconsiderable proportion or a favored class,” that is, old, white, and male. The United States Senate alone has an average age of 65.3, is 78% White, and is only 25% Female. This is far from representative of America, where the average age is 38.9, merely 60.1% White, and just over 50% Female. James Madison would feel disheartened by our failure to keep that second promise, but he would remain hopeful that we can still uphold the first.

How would a Citizen Assembly Model ensure more representative governance in the spirit of American Republican governance? A Citizen’s Assembly is a democratic institution grounded in representative governance. It organizes a representative sample of a population to learn, debate, and ultimately propose policy recommendations they have concluded as necessary. A Citizens Assembly would inherently create a decision-making body more representative of the entire US population and thus be able to speak with a voice and make recommendations genuinely in the spirit of America’s promise of Republican governance.

European countries have recently embraced such Assemblies, showcasing their implementation across the continent’s democracies. One must only look at the experience of France’s Climate Citizens Assembly to see the successes of such as body. It gathered 150 Citizens who, over nine months, debated key climate policy issues and ultimately formalized 149 policy recommendations for the government to implement. Citizens overwhelmingly voted to support these proposals, and the assembly recommended policies far more ambitious than anything the government had considered for years. Not only did this Citizen Assembly more significantly move the needle on the Climate Change debate, not only did it emboldened hundreds of activists around Climate Change, but it was also the truest example of representative governance; the French Population is 10.6% age 18-24, the Assembly was 9.4%, France is 24% from Suburban areas, the Assembly was 21.4%, and France is 47.8% Female while the assembly was 49.15%. Ireland took similar transformative actions when calling multiple Citizen Assemblies to tackle its nation’s more controversial but pressing issues, which resulted in the enshrinement of Same-Sex Marriage and the Right to Abortion in its Constitution. Belgium went further by permanently creating a Citizen Assembly governing body within one of its federal districts. Thus, there is abundant international precedent for creating a Citizen Assembly as a means of promising actual representative governance.

In short, if America adopts these Citizen Assembly models, it will finally fulfill the promise of representative government enshrined in its Constitution. However, suppose more Constitutional grounding is required to solidify the imperative of bringing a Citizen Assembly Model to US governance. In that case, we need only look at the Bill of Rights. It may surprise some that the argument for a Citizen’s Assembly is already established within the US Constitution, specifically within its First Amendment. The First Amendment to the Constitution instills the right of citizens to “peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Historically, these rights have been expressed through protests, marches, lawsuits, contacting representatives, and beyond. Yet, the spirit and precise language of these rights directly support the argument for a Citizens Assembly. A Citizens Assembly represents an equally valid “peaceful assembly” whose primary purpose is to “petition the government” to address the American people’s “grievances” and ideas. Therefore, pursuing a Citizens Assembly model of government and decision-making can be considered a Constitutional protected right when understood within the freedoms established within the First Amendment.

A Citizen Assembly represents the most authentic expression of America’s Constitutionally established Republican Democracy Model while also aligning with the freedoms the First Amendment grants to all citizens. Ultimately, a Citizen Assembly Model is embedded within our nation’s foundational documents, democratic values, and the very essence of representative governance.

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