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The Blaenau Gwent Climate Assembly is a first for Wales

This community could be about to change how communities in Wales help decide on climate policy. In just a few days time Wales will host its very first Climate Assembly. It could be a game-changer...

Posted 01 Mar 2021

This assembly has real clout and major backing

Holyrood must take forward the Citizens’ Assembly’s calls to revamp Scottish democracy

Politicians must move Scottish democracy forward by putting citizens at the centre, the ERS and 17 other leading organisations and campaigners say.

Posted 18 Feb 2021

“Citizens’ assemblies are being used to upgrade Scottish democracy”

Scotland’s ground-breaking Citizens’ Assembly has wrapped up. What’s next?

Scotland’s first Citizens’ Assembly, a deliberative body made up of 100 citizens reflecting the country’s demographics, concluded in January and published its visions for the future of Scotland. Citizens’ Assemblies which aim to create ‘mini-publics’...

Posted 09 Feb 2021

People want democracy on the agenda at the May elections

Scotland’s local democracy is not an optional extra

The experience of the covid-19 crisis has served to underline and strengthen the case ERS Scotland has long been making for a revamped local democracy. The work undertaken in recent years – alongside a range...

Posted 14 Jan 2021

Thriving, empowered communities develop the foundations for long term prosperity

What we’ve learnt about the government’s ‘Democracy Commission’

By Akash Thiara, a Placement Student with the Electoral Reform Society from the University of Nottingham. It has been a year since the last general election and, the Conservative party pledged it would set up...

Posted 18 Dec 2020

Voters have been excluded from these crucial decisions

It’s time to put deliberation at the heart of Scottish politics

Last Saturday the final session of the Citizen’s Assembly of Scotland concluded. The assembly, the largest deliberative event in Scotland’s history brought together ordinary people to deliberate over the issues that will shape Scotland. As...

Posted 12 Dec 2020

A House of Citizens could revolutionise Scottish democracy

Building a better democracy – 2020 and the Electoral Reform Society

It’s hard to think of a more troubling year in living memory. But the public health crisis has, perhaps counter-intuitively, put issues of democracy at the forefront. The election may feel like a distant memory,...

Posted 07 Dec 2020

Manifesto for Democracy: Deepening Democracy

Democracy is about empowering citizens to be involved in their political system and as such embedding the voices of everyday citizens into those systems is vital to democracy that works. Without it we risk not...

Posted 30 Oct 2020

The Citizen’s Assembly of Scotland can help shape our post-Covid future

Scotland’s first Citizens’ Assembly met last week for the first time since March. Like many social events and workplaces, the deliberative body, made up of 100 citizens reflecting Scotland’s demographics, has moved online after being...

Posted 23 Sep 2020

Covid-19 has moved the assembly to the forefront of Scottish government thinking

What can we learn from the UK Climate Assembly?

The UK’s first nationwide citizens’ assembly on climate change came to a close this week, with the launch of its final report setting out 50 recommendations on how the UK should reach net zero by...

Posted 11 Sep 2020