Paris citizens’ assemby (FRPA0001)

Commitment ID

FRPA0001

Commitment Title

Paris citizens’ assemby

Problem

This commitment aims to expand citizenship rights related to political participation, as well as to achieve higher levels of equality in participation.

Status quo

While several initiatives from the City of Paris already enable citizens to voice their opinions (such as participatory budgeting, advisory councils, citizen panels, and conferences), the ambition of the Citizen Assembly is unprecedented. It aims to provide its members with new tools for training, discovering, and deciphering municipal issues, better understanding the functioning of the City of Paris and public services, infusing new ideas, and influencing public decision-making.

Action

This commitment involves the establishment of a Citizen Assembly comprising 100 residents of Paris, randomly selected for a one-year term. The objective of this new citizen assembly is to directly participate in the policymaking process.

In practice, the assembly convenes in working groups to deliberate and formulate recommendations. The assembly's work focuses on three main themes: social education, environment, and public space. The assembly's work is divided into two phases: an initial phase of discovery and learning, and a second phase of deepening and recommendations.

At the end of the process, the recommendations of the Citizen Assembly are submitted to the Parisian executive and presented during the Paris Council.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

• Expanding citizenship rights related to political participation: The Citizen Assembly has unprecedented prerogatives allowing its citizen members to produce deliberations submitted to the Paris Council, a major innovation of this body and a direct link to decision-making.

• Achieving higher levels of equality in participation: Mobilization of the members of the Citizen Assembly is carried out through a weighted random selection based on four socio-demographic criteria: age, gender, level of education, and district of residence. This pursuit of equality in participation also involves supporting those selected to reduce any potential feelings of illegitimacy (training in public speaking, deciphering current events, etc.).

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

In the long term, this commitment aims to better integrate citizen participation into decision-making processes and institutionalize citizen participation bodies at the scale of the City of Paris.

Primary Policy Area

Civic Space, Legislative Openness

Primary Sector

Cross-sectoral

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?