How can a Permanent Citizens’ Assemblies reinforce Democracy?
Issue 10 European Alternatives Journal
We are navigating towards the Vienna stop of Democratic Odyssey, the last stop of the journey (though we hope it won’t be the final one!), following our previous gatherings in Athens and Florence. Here, citizens selected by sortition, activists, researchers, and policymakers will come together to reimagine democracy, building on their collective exploration of how to tackle global crises together.
With this in mind, we aim to publish a collection of insights, case studies, and reflections on citizens’ assemblies and participatory democracy in action, asking: How do citizens come together to shape their futures? What happens when ordinary people reclaim decision-making power? How do assemblies, large and small, challenge existing political structures and create lasting impact? Can a citizens’ assembly become permanent and gain institutional recognition?
This Vienna gathering will take place within the framework of Wiener Festwochen, a renowned festival whose theme this year is “Republic of Love.” This prompts us to ask: Can participatory democracy be an act of care?
At a time when democracy is under strain, threatened by disillusionment, political polarization, and diminishing public trust, citizens’ assemblies have emerged as a radical alternative.
Against polarization we need to bring unity.
Across Europe and beyond, these participatory spaces demonstrate that deliberation, imagination, and collective intelligence can shape new political futures.
From climate assemblies pushing for systemic change to local councils reclaiming the commons, from migrant-led deliberative processes to feminist and decolonial democratic experiments, these spaces offer a glimpse into what a truly participatory democracy could look like.
This issue of the EA Journal will document and amplify the stories of assemblies that have created or are creating real impact.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We invite a diverse range of contributions, from essays to investigative pieces, from personal testimonies to creative reflections, on the power of deliberative democracy and participatory governance. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- The emotional dimension of democracy: How does love, understood as solidarity, care, and collective responsibility, shape political participation?
- Assemblies that made a difference: Case studies of citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting projects, and deliberative processes that have led to concrete political change.
- Failures and lessons learned: What happens when participatory processes do not achieve their goals? What obstacles prevent them from working effectively?
- Campaign: How to build a strong and powerful campaign for a permanent citizens’ assembly?
- Beyond the nation-state: How can transnational assemblies work? What role can they play in European and global democracy?
Submission Guidelines
Read the guidelines here.
Contact our editors Marta Cillero Manzano m.cillero@euroalter.com and Noemi Pittalà n.pittala@euroalter.com if you’d like to contribute to the journal.
Deadline: 14 April 2025
About the EA Journal
The EA journal is a space to imagine alternatives beyond the nation-state. It contains think-pieces, articles, artistic and cultural contributions, podcasts, videos and more on a broad range of topics and themes spanning democracy, culture, equality, decolonisation, social movement organising and more. In 2023, we relaunched the European Alternatives journal. First published in 2007, the journal has long been a space to map out visions, ideas and pathways for an alternative, open and radically more democratic Europe.