The British Columbia Citizens

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The British Columbia Citizens Assembly

• Andrew Graham
• Jen Lee
• Ziang Tony Ngo

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British Columbia

• Like all provinces, British Columbia is governed
  by a provincial legislature
• The province is divided into 79 ridings, each of
  which elects a Member of Legislative Assembly to
  represent it
• Members elected using standard First-Past-The-Post
  (FTTP) system

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Recent Electoral History

• 1996 provincial election

of votes of seats
Liberal 41.82 41.77
NDP 39.45 49.37
Reform 9.27 2.53
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Recent Electoral History

• 2001 political election

of votes of seats
Liberal 57.62 97.46
NDP 21.56 2.54
Green 12.39 0
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Key design considerations

• 158 BC residents2 for each riding, staffed by
  chair secretariat
• Granted budget of 5.5mm
• Honorarium of 150 per dayalso includes daycare,
  transportation, accommodation

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Summary of process
May Jun 04
Sept Nov 04
Aug Dec 03
Jan Mar 04
Selection Produce a representative body
Public Hearing Listen to your
fellow citizens
Learning Master fundamentals of field
Deliberation Bring the Assemblys work to
conclusion

• 6 weekend commitments
• Expert lectures and breakouts into large and
  small group discussions
• Advisory experts design curriculum plan (e.g.
  pre-session reading materials)
• Discussions facilitated by political science grad
  students
• Development of Shared Values

• 50 events on weekday evenings and weekend
  afternoons, 383 presentations, 3,000 attendees
• Groups of 4-16
• Geographic mix (1 local, 1 neighboring, 1 other)
• Hearings open to all attendees
• Online participation
• Summary posted after each meeting
• Written submissions by over 1,430 individuals to
  website
• Staff member prepares abstract for searchable
  database by category
• End-of-phase meeting to review what was heard and
  read

• Review of democratic values and focus on features
  of electoral systems
• Formal presentations on various systems from
  people the Assembly identified
• Building detailed models (i.e. STV, MMP)
• Engage in systematic comparison and debate
• Voting process
• 1. MMP vs. STV
• 2. FPTP?
• 3. STV?

• BC voters list updated
• Randomized list of 200 names for each electoral
  district drawn
• Names generated categorized by gender and age
• Letter sent to 15,800 individuals as call to
  action
• Responses grouped by district, gender, age
• Low response rate leads to more names drawn
• 23,000 invites sent, 1,700 express interest, 964
  attend meetings, 158 randomly selected
• No aboriginal representation

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Analysis Critique Selection of Participants

• Partially-controlled Randomization Sampling
• Diffused involvement vs. politician experts in
  status quo
• Random selection but no obligation for
  participation
• Self-selection ? participants are more
  civic-minded/bored/lower-income than greater
  population?
• Representative of some groups (gender, age,
  geography) but not others (ethnicity, aboriginal
  status, socio-economic status)
• Confusion over what participants are representing
  (selves, district, the CA, etc.)

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Analysis CritiqueMode of Communication and
Decision Making

• High Intensity
• CA staff (not participants) set agenda, timing,
  and priority of electoral reforms
• Unclear whether there was balanced dissemination
  of information (education materials, selection of
  electoral experts)
• Did time and group pressure to reach a consensus
  decision hinder quality of decision making?
• Evidence of skewed quantity of participation ?
  disproportionate influence of men over women and
  minorities?

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Analysis CritiqueExtent of Authority

• Co-Governance
• Stakeholders (ordinary citizens) are directly
  empowered
• CA able to propose new system but cannot directly
  decide (nor can legislators), up to referendum
• Through public hearings, broader public can
  self-select to communicate influence
• Broader citizenship also ultimately decides

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Another ExperimentOntario 2007

• Ontario convened its own Citizens Assembly in
  2006
• Based on the BC model
• Similar selection process, secretariat model
• Recommended a form of MMP
• Put to referendum on Oct 10, 2007
• Received 47 support, less than 60 threshold

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A Few Outstanding Questions

• How does the conception and implementation of the
  Citizens Assembly in BC compare to other models
  that we have studied?
• How extensively should Canada emulate the CA
  model?
• What are the limitations and unique success
  factors of the BC example? What is
  generalizable?
• Are there broader implications in the
  differential levels of engagement between
  participants and the broader public?

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And A Few MORE Outstanding Questions
What are the top 5 reasons Archon received tenure?
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PAL-218s Top 5 Reasons Archon Received Tenure

• 5. His artistic renditions using PRA techniques
  of Arnsteins ladder during his faculty meetings

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PAL-218s Top 5 Reasons Archon Received Tenure

• 4. KSGs new policy on faculty representation to
  include at least one Archon in tenured staff

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PAL-218s Top 5 Reasons Archon Received Tenure

• 3. Only person on the planet to know meaning of
  multi-participatory-democratic-deliberative-collec
  tive-rural-majoritianism-elections

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PAL-218s Top 5 Reasons Archon Received Tenure

• 2. Democracy Cube in 2007 is expected to be what
  the Rubiks Cube was in 1987

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PAL-218s Top 5 Reasons Archon Received Tenure

• 1. Upcoming lead role in Terminator 4
• Deliberation Day

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Congratulations Professor Fung on getting
tenure!Your PAL-218 students