Fixing Public Sector Spending
One factor above all is fuelling riots in Europe and threatening a looming fiscal crisis in the United States: a growing shortfall in funding for basic services and social security. Fragmented and polarised traditional governments – based on political parties constantly seeking re-election – are failing to come up with long-term solutions to the problem.
So it’s refreshing to see a top French institution, an influential US voice and smaller-scale European and other municipalities turning to citizens’ assemblies to try to break their budgetary logjams.
Indeed, the convening of groups of randomly selected citizens for a deeply informed, one-off deliberation may be the best democratic technique available to find ways to share all the inevitable future financial pain. A new broom is vital to establish a credible, equitable, and legitimate path: it is the old system of elected decision-makers, after all, that over the past half-century has pushed the welfare systems of these states close to bankruptcy.
In November in France, the government’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) – an institutional bridge between elected parliamentary bodies and citizens and civil society – is convening 150 randomly selected citizens to deliberate on all aspects of policy to fix the country’s budget. “This novel approach aims to engage citizen participation at the heart of the current debate on public finances, while simultaneously initiating a long-term reflection on the country’s future,” the CESE says.
