That is the claim of those promoting a citizens’ assembly as a solution to the current Brexit conundrum. Campaigners point to Ireland, which set up first a constitutional convention and then a citizens’ assembly, to ponder Ireland’s biggest post-crash issues. If the Brexit referendum had been preceded by such a dignified process, it would, as Fintan O’Toole observed in these pages, have been a very different experience. True, in Ireland there has been criticism about how representative the assembly was, and how little politicians did about climate change. But if the current Brexit imbroglio highlights anything it is that democracy is about respectful discussion, not just voting.

Source: The Guardian December 20, 2018 18:38 UTC