Citizens' Assembly on Brexit

The process of leaving the EU presents the biggest set of decisions faced by the UK polity for decades. Given its prominence and importance, decision-making must satisfy two conditions. First, it should respect and respond to public opinion: both democratic principle and the need for public legitimacy demand this. Second, the process should be carefully considered: the options and their implications for all parts of society should be clearly understood and priorities carefully weighed.

The proposed project is designed to advance these goals - and thereby to make a major and distinctive contribution to the Brexit process - by creating a Citizens' Assembly on Brexit. We will link the Assembly to ongoing work around Brexit in government and parliament and publicize its work and recommendations to the public at large. In so doing, the project will advance understanding of how democratic practice might best be furthered in general.

There are dangers that the conditions for effective decision-making on Brexit might not be met. Voters have been asked whether they want Brexit, but not what form they want it to take. Parliament - the usual location for public scrutiny - feels hamstrung because it is known to contain a pro-Remain majority and so risks public anger. Many 'Remainers', still hoping Brexit can be stopped, are reluctant to engage constructively with the question of the form it should take. Some 'Leavers', worried that extended negotiations might create a risk of reversal, insist that matters are simpler than they are. Public debates are often polarized and distorted.

The ideal response to these problems would be to create a deliberative process encompassing the whole electorate. But this is impossible, both financially and practicably. The closest approximation is a citizens' assembly: a body of citizens who are selected randomly (but with stratification) from the general population to represent the diversity of society and who meet over a period of time to learn about the issues, hear a wide range of perspectives on them, deliberate in depth, and reach conclusions. The project team combines expertise from academia and civil society, including members of the ESRC-funded Democracy Matters project, which ran two pilot citizens' assemblies in 2015 and went on to win the Political Studies Association's 2016 Democratic Innovation Award. We seek to build upon the expertise developed and lessons learnt by that project and the follow-on Better Referendum initiative, also ESRC-funded, to deliver a Citizens' Assembly on Brexit.

We expect the Assembly to have 45 members who will be broadly representative of the UK population. Stratification will be used to provide the greatest possible representativeness in terms of criteria such as gender, age, place of residence, social class, and attitudes to Brexit. The Assembly will meet over two weekends. Members will learn about the options for Brexit, discuss their own perspectives, hear from a wide range of experts and campaigners, deliberate on what they have heard, and draw up recommendations. They will also be able to engage online between the weekends. The Assembly will deliver a report that will be widely circulated among policy-makers and commentators, launched at a high-profile event, and promoted through traditional and social media.

The project will pursue two objectives. The first is to use the well-tested citizens' assembly model to deliver what is needed by Brexit negotiators, parliamentarians, and all engaged in the Brexit debate: a deep insight into informed public opinion on the form that Brexit should take. The second is to use this opportunity to examine two unanswered questions regarding citizens' assemblies: whether and how they can be used successfully in the context of existing intense and polarized debate; and whether and how a diverse and representative membership can be secured. The project is carefully designed to advance these objectives to the full.

This project is designed to make a major, distinctive, and positive contribution to the Brexit process by providing a mechanism through which decision-making can be well informed and grounded in public expectations and, thereby, by promoting the public legitimacy of the outcome. Impact is thus woven into the heart of the project design.

The project will make twofold contributions: on the Brexit process, and on democratic practice.

The intended beneficiaries of the insights regarding public judgements on Brexit are:
- government: the ministers and officials who will negotiate on the terms of Brexit;
- parliament: the House of Commons Committee on Exiting the European Union, the House of Lords European Union Committee, as well as MPs and peers in general;
- devolved administrations and assemblies, which are seeking to shape the Brexit process and outcomes;
- journalists, commentators, businesses, and civil society organizations, for whom an understanding of the many layers of public opinion is invaluable;
- the general public, who continue to show great interest in Brexit and whose lives will be deeply affected by the form it takes.

These groups will benefit from the research because it will illuminate the perceptions, preferences, and overall judgements of a broadly representative sample of the general public who have been able to examine in depth the question of what form Brexit should take. If the Brexit process is to be grounded both in public opinion and in careful and informed consideration, such knowledge is essential. The Citizens' Assembly on Brexit will become an important reference point in public debates: participants in these debates will recognize it has much to say that is valuable and important. We expect that the Assembly will frequently be invoked as a source of insight in parliament and in the media.

The intended beneficiaries of the project's insights regarding democratic practice are:
- policy-makers in the UK government and parliament, devolved administrations and assemblies, and local government, who can learn about possibilities for using deliberative mechanisms in policy-making;
- campaigners for democratic reform;
- ultimately, the general public, whose lives are affected by the quality of the democratic process.

The Minister for the Constitution, Chris Skidmore, has said that it is a government priority to promote engagement in politics among those who are currently 'furthest from politics'. There is also a widespread concern about the current quality of democratic discourse and a desire to find ways of strengthening it. This project will provide fresh insight regarding the feasibility and effectiveness of one prominent new means of doing this: the use of deliberative bodies such as citizens' assemblies. Ultimately, the public at large will benefit if this research can further understandings of how democratic processes can be deepened and their own considered voices can be heard.

The means through which we will connect with these intended beneficiaries are set out fully in the Pathways to Impact document. We will draw on the resources of the UCL Constitution Unit, UCL Press Office, and the Electoral Reform Society, collectively bringing very extensive contacts in government, parliament, devolved/local government, and the media. We are already engaging with the UK parliamentary authorities (including the Commons Speaker and chairs of relevant select committees) and exploring various ways in which the Assembly might engage with parliament. If this bid is successful, we will likewise activate our contacts across government and in the devolved administrations. We will also seek to engage a media partner, preferably the BBC, to provide a high-profile platform for the Assembly's work.

We fully expect these contacts to yield valuable collaborations. In addition, we will engage with the full range of beneficiaries through the mechanisms set out in the Pathways to Impact document.