Social Science Research Council

"Assessing the Impact of Deliberative Processes on Electoral Reform Efforts in Two Canadian Provinces"

Recent debates about the declining vitality of democratic institutions among political scientists, sociologists and popular media have focused on a number of proposals for institutional renewal. My study explores two extraordinary processes of institutional change currently underway in British Columbia and Quebec. Both provinces have convened deliberative assemblies comprised of ordinary citizens to debate and recommend changes to each province's electoral system. The BC experiment is particularly unusual since the assembly's recommendation has the potential to be legally binding if it is passed in a May 2005 provincial referendum. From January - March 2004 I observed the initial "learning weekends" of the BC Citizens Assembly, where randomly selected citizens from across the province gathered to learn about different electoral systems. In May and June 2004 I observed a sample of the 50 public hearings throughout British Columbia conducted by the Citizens Assembly. At these hearings Citizens' Assembly members heard submissions on electoral reform from individuals and interest groups from across the province. Funding from the IDRF will allow me to observe the third and final deliberation phase of the Assembly, in which the members of the Assembly will develop a recommendation that will be put to referendum in May 2005. Following the deliberation phase, IDRF funding will allow me to pursue in-depth interviews with staff, participants, and key interest groups in BC and to monitor the campaigns leading up to the referendum. In addition, I will be heading out to Quebec city and Montreal to investigate the archives generated by Quebec's deliberative process and to conduct interviews with key players in that process, in order to develop a case-study comparison with the BC process. The overarching goal for the project is to provide theoretical insight and empirical evidence that addresses ongoing academic and public debates about deliberative democracy. In particular, the project will focus on the following areas: organizational dynamics of participatory institutions, the integration of participatory governance into pre-existing policy networks, and the role of province-specific democratic cultural norms on deliberation initiatives. Hopefully this research will contribute not only to academic debates, but also to the development of new deliberative initiatives elsewhere in Canada and the world.