Negative piece in @ladh on politics of Brussels Parliament’s joint citizen/MP panels – headline calls it “Noddy Politics”. Notable for me is how the parties quoted are more critical the further to the political right they are. Eg the right-liberal MR: dhnet.be/regions/bruxel…
The other notable points (for me) are:
1. Citizens profited from the experience
2. Follow up is essential (and seen to be lacking, though that’s hardly the fault of the process)
3. The link made between citizen assemblies and the intention of abolishing representative democracy
The last one is a risk for those of us who want to continue experimenting with these approaches without seeing them as an alternative to representation.
Originally posted as a thread of 3 tweets on Twitter on 26 August 2022. View the original thread.