Citizens’ Assemblies with Binding Follow-Through
- Maéva Lafleur
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
What About Dem contributed to the UN Special Rapporteur's Beyond Growth Roadmap, a landmark policy initiative calling for a fundamental rethinking of how we fight poverty.
The Roadmap, submitted to the Human Rights Council, challenges the dominant assumption that economic growth is the primary engine of poverty reduction. In an era of ecological constraints and slowing growth, it argues that eradicating poverty requires a different approach: one built on redistribution, democratic legitimacy, and structural transformation rather than GDP expansion alone.
What About Dem authored the policy profile on "Citizens' assemblies with binding follow-through", one of the Roadmap's core governance proposals, written by Maeva Lafleur, Jonathan Moskovic, Hélène Ramaroson, and Hannah Vanbelle.
The policy makes the case that the most ambitious anti-poverty policies progressive are precisely those that conventional political systems find hardest to enact such as taxation, universal services, wealth redistribution. Citizens' assemblies, randomly selected to reflect the full diversity of society, offer a structural response to this democratic gap. By guaranteeing the presence of people living in poverty within the very processes that shape their lives, and by linking deliberation to binding institutional outcomes, they can provide the democratic mandate that bold reform requires.
It draws on experiences from Ireland, France (Paris) and Belgium (Brussels and Ostbelgien) to show that these are not theoretical proposals, they are proven innovations, ready to be adapted and scaled. It also calls on the UN system to establish dedicated funding mechanisms so that deliberative democracy becomes accessible to countries in the Global South, not just wealthier states.
The profile was peer-reviewed by Andrea Gaiba and Kalypso Nicolaïdis from the European University Institute, whose expertise helped strengthen the analytical rigour of the proposal.
The Roadmap will be presented at the Human Rights Council session in June–July 2026. What About Dem is proud to have contributed to this effort to place participatory governance at the heart of the global fight against poverty.
