A Citizens’ Assembly for the Scottish Parliament
Policy Paper
Credits — Common Weal, Sortition Foundation, newDemocracy
Overview
A blueprint for a Citizens’ Assembly as a Second Chamber for the Scottish Parliament.
Many people no longer trust politicians and the political process; the feeling (justified or not) that politicians make short-term decisions based largely on political calculations – irrespective of citizens’ wishes – is undermining faith in democracy itself. Establishing a Citizens’ Assembly as a second chamber to the Scottish Parliament would increase public trust in parliament and boost the confidence of legislators that there is broad public backing for their decisions. We propose selecting a random, representative sample of 73 members of the public to fulfil this role for at least one but preferably two-year terms (with a portion of them rotating out every six months). A two year trial is proposed whereby the Citizens’ Assembly is granted only advisory powers, after which a citizens’ review would propose which future powers the Assembly should have, and suggest improvements to the processes outlined below.
Key Points
The Citizens’ Assembly would be selected by random sortition – i.e. a random sample of Scottish residents, balanced to reflect the demographics of Scotland.
This Upper House would be permanent and distinct from any other Citizens’ Assemblies that Scotland could form to discuss either general views or a specific topic.
Three models of Upper House are discussed. An Advisory Chamber would be the weakest form of Assembly, with the power to scrutinise bills and suggest amendments (in a manner similar to the current Committee system) and to apply censure to the Scottish Parliament or MSPs.
The next model would be a House of Review similar to the House of Lords where bills could be directly amended or delayed but in most cases not permanently blocked.
The most powerful Citizens’ Assembly would be a full Senate with the ability not only to amend legislation proposed by the Parliament but to introduce legislation of its own accord (with appropriate caveats).
Citizens would be paid a rate comparable to MSPs while they sit for a two year term and provisions would be put in place – similar to those in place for juries – to support employers who lose their employee for this period and to assist Assembly members to re-integrate into their previous job when their term ends.
