The idea of citizens’ assemblies and other forms of citizens’ participation in constitutional changes and public initiatives: experience and prospects for constitutionalization in the New and Old World

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Author: Igor Kravets

DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2024-4-40-60

Keywords: citizens’ assemblies; democratic constitutionalism; popular constitutionalism; deliberation; deliberative constitutionalism; citizen participation; popular sovereignty; deliberative systems; involvement; citizens’ constitution

Abstract

The article discusses the theoretical foundations and applied aspects of deliberative and popular constitutionalism, forms of citizen’ participation in constitutional changes and public initiatives. The author reveals scholarly approaches to understanding interaction between the constituent power and the democratic creation of constitutions and constitutional amendments, taking into account the conceptualization and use of democratic innovations in constitutional design and public space. In the countries of the New and Old Worlds, in the global South and in the countries of the European continent, institutions of popular participation, citizen involvement through assemblies and other forms are actively used. Some of the new forms of democracy are partially enshrined in constitutional norms or legislative acts. Among the forms of civic activity, which at the end of the 20th — first quarter of the 21st century are rightfully considered as various types of democratic innovations, an important place is occupied by the constitutional line of conversations and public constitutional assemblies, mini-publics, citizens’ assemblies, digital participation in the creation of a draft constitution and in legislative activity, participatory budgeting of projects, referendums on the initiative of citizens on constitutionally significant issues, constitutional amendments and draft constitutions. The study notes that in comparative constitutional experience and normative regulation, the meaning and nature of citizens’ assemblies as constitutional institutions are gradually changing, although such changes do not seem obvious. Citizens’ assemblies and other forms of collective participation perform the function of creating a broad informational, legal, organizational and political field for involving citizens and expert opinion; they become the deliberative environment in which issues of constitutional and national importance are discussed, including individual amendments to the constitution or a new draft constitution, legislative acts or legislative initiatives at the national level, but can also be used at the regional or municipal levels. The article used deliberative and epistemological approaches, methods of formal-legal, concrete-historical, comparative constitutional-legal and complex analysis.

About the author: Igor Kravets – Doctor of Sciences in Law, Professor, Head of the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law, Chief Researcher at the Institute for the Philosophy and Law, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia.

Citation: Kravets I. (2024) Ideya grazhdanskikh assambley i inye formy uchastiya grazhdan v konstitutsionnykh izmeneniyakh i publichnykh initsiativakh: opyt i perspektivy konstitutsionalizatsii v Novom i Starom Svete (chast' 1) [The idea of citizens’ assemblies and other forms of citizens’ participation in constitutional changes and public initiatives: experience and prospects for constitutionalization in the New and Old World]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.33, no.4, pp.40–60. (In Russian).

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