Paper by DemNext: “Africa faces a paradox. Most people continue to support democratic institutions, even though their satisfaction is declining with institutions’ ability to deliver inclusive economic prosperity and accountable, responsive governance. Citizens’ assemblies offer a way forward by offering the opportunity to draw on indigenous traditions of sustained deliberation and consensus-building to tackle complex policy problems.
In this paper, we explore how citizens’ assemblies can be adapted to Africa’s diverse contexts by drawing on real-world experiences across the continent. We begin by outlining the civic strengths and cultural traditions that underpin deliberative democracy in Africa, before reviewing emerging deliberative experiments – including citizens’ assemblies – that illustrate their potential. We introduce an analytical framework to assess the strengths and limitations of citizens’ assemblies and apply it to case studies from Mali, Malawi, and The Gambia. Finally, we highlight insights from an upcoming citizens’ assembly in South Africa.
The paper serves two purposes: advancing theoretical frameworks for evaluating deliberative processes in the Global South, and offering practical guidance to foster experimentation and collaboration in democratic innovation across these contexts. Rather than proposing a single model, we identify context-sensitive strategies that help citizens’ assemblies bridge Africa’s democratic delivery gap, while building on longstanding traditions of collective decision making…(More)”.
