What is a hybrid participation process bringing together elected officials and citizens?

Hybrid participation processes are initiatives allowing direct deliberation between elected officials and citizens to co-develop proposals.

Other terms are also used synonymously: mixed mini-publics, mixed participation mechanisms, hybrid elected officials/citizens process, mixed deliberative forum, etc.

Have elected officials and citizens deliberate to strengthen the impact of citizen participation

In recent years we have witnessed an explosion in citizen participation at all levels of power: participatory budget, citizen assemblies, neighborhood councils, youth assembly, climate convention, etc. These initiatives aim to provide a response to the crisis of representativeness and to the growing distrust of citizens vis-à-vis politics. However, does the citizen partition really keep its promises?

Last May, Le Soir headlined “Citizen participation in Belgium: a damning report”. Experts were indeed sounding the alarm: the recommendations produced by citizens are given little or no consideration by the elected officials who receive them. The example of the Citizens' Climate Convention in France or the G1000 in Belgium are particularly emblematic. Only 12% of the measures of the French Convention were taken up as they were and no G1000 proposal has really influenced the Belgian political agenda. Result: participation produces, contrary to the expected effect, ever more disappointed citizens.

Faced with this observation, mixed participation mechanisms offer an interesting solution: what if elected officials participated directly in the development of recommendations with citizens to strengthen their ownership? Rather than receiving the recommendations at the end of the process like a foreign body, elected officials become co-designers, which aims to facilitate their implementation.

Mixed participation mechanisms: what are the risks of having elected officials and citizens deliberate?

Bringing together elected officials and citizens , however, is not easy . The majority of participation initiatives thus exclude elected officials from exchanges with citizens to protect themselves from their influence and guarantee freedom of discussion.

Practitioners and academics are therefore wondering whether the facility of elected officials for public speaking would not allow them to dominate discussions with citizens . The risk being that the recommendations produced ultimately reflect the will of elected officials more than that of citizens.

Hybrid consultation processes: 5 tips for balancing exchanges between elected officials and citizens

The risk of seeing elected officials dominate exchanges with citizens is, however, not inevitable. Existing experiences of deliberation between elected officials and citizens also provide valuable lessons for balancing exchanges between elected officials and citizens:

• A low proportion of elected officials: a recent study (Grönlund et al., 2022) shows that below a certain number of elected officials, the latter no longer have a negative influence on the quality of deliberation with the citizens. Retaining a small proportion of elected officials would thus make it possible to balance the voice between elected officials and citizens.
• Preparation times without elected officials : Sometimes, applying the same procedure for elected officials and citizens simply risks giving the advantage to elected officials, who are potentially more comfortable expressing themselves. It may be interesting to provide preparation time only between citizens, so that they can then enter into the deliberation with elected officials who are better equipped and therefore more on an equal footing. These preparation times can also specifically take the form of specialized support to help people speak and argue their positions.
• ng style="background-color: transparent;">Experienced facilitators: to be able to rebalance speech between the most talkative and the most shy, mixed systems require, more than other participation initiatives, experienced and active facilitation. Indeed, balancing interventions with elected officials, experts in public speaking, requires active and sufficiently assured animation to maintain the framework.
• Preparation time with elected officials : the exercise of direct deliberation with citizens is potentially not self-evident for elected officials. Although they are used to exchanging with citizens, this mode of peer-to-peer exchange to co-construct proposals is often new. It may be relevant to organize time for discussion and preparation with elected officials before the sessions, to clarify the framework, receive their feedback and ultimately strengthen the quality of exchanges between elected officials and citizens.
• A positive definition of roles and expertise : the trap would be to fall into the antagonism of elected experts facing non-expert citizens, some having to implicitly instruct the others. Some implicitly active, others passive. On the contrary, it is important to present a complementarity of knowledge and expertise between elected officials and citizens. Citizens in their diversity are able to bring points of view, perspectives that elected officials do not have, and vice versa. This approach makes it possible to strengthen the relationship of equality between elected officials and citizens and the feeling of legitimacy of each person to express themselves.

What are the benefits of mixed deliberative forums bringing together elected officials and citizens?

• Facilitate the appropriation of recommendations : inviting elected officials to co-construct with citizens rather than receiving proposals at the end of the process helps to strengthen their appropriation by elected officials. This stronger ownership would make it easier to implement the proposals.
• Bringing together elected officials and citizens : bringing elected officials and citizens together in a balanced and positive framework helps to break down mutual prejudices. Citizens can emerge with a greater feeling of closeness to their representatives and a better understanding of their constraints and realities. The involvement of elected officials can also break down certain prejudices about the participation and capacity of citizens to contribute directly to public affairs.
• Strengthen the solidity of the proposals : following, for example, the Citizens' Climate Convention in France, we have seen politicians and lobbies unraveling the recommendations made by citizens. Inviting elected officials directly into the development process would help avoid this phenomenon. We invite elected officials to formulate any reservations not to downplay the proposals but to find compromises and overcome blockages.
• Spread the culture of participation within institutions : over the course of the 6 deliberative commissions which have taken place since 2019 in the Brussels Parliament, all deputies have been able to take part in this system bringing together parliamentarians and citizens chosen by lot. We can assume that this direct and massive exposure of elected officials to these initiatives could change their view of the place of citizens in politics, and spread the participatory culture within institutions.

Mixed elected/citizen mini-publics: a minority model but one that is progressing

Mixed participatory processes which bring together elected officials and citizens today represent a minority of participation initiatives. However, more and more initiatives are taking this direction and inviting elected officials to participate in discussions with citizens, in particular:

• 2013 – 2014: First Constitutional Convention, Ireland
• Since 2015: Political task committees, Gentofte, Denmark
• Since 2016: Mixed assemblies in the municipality of Korsholm, Finland
• Since 2019: Deliberative commissions, Belgium
• Since 2023: Joint assembly in the comunicipality of Poitiers, France
• Since 2023: Hallo Bundestag initiative, Germany

Deliberative commissions: Belgium leader in mixed participation processes bringing together elected officials and citizens

Deliberative Commissions are a mixed model of Belgian citizen participation, which involves parliamentarians and citizens chosen at random to produce recommendations on a given subject. They were initiated in the Brussels region in 2019 and launched in the Walloon region in 2023. 8 deliberative commissions have already been carried out in different Belgian assemblies, making this country a leader in mixed systems bringing together elected officials and citizens.