The impact of citizens' assemblies on policymaking: Approaches and methods

Abstract

The chapter aims to contribute to the debate on citizens' assemblies' impacts on the policymaking process. It reviews the different ways to envision this impact by distinguishing three ways to conceptualize and measure it: (1) congruence between the recommendation and public decisions, (2) consideration in the policymaking process, and (3) structural changes. The chapter concludes by discussing the remaining points of attention for future research on the matter. It highlights the need for a multidimensional approach of the notion of impact, for a more complex vision of public action when questioning the impact, and for more comparative analyses to understand the explanatory factors of such impacts.