Crisis of scale
Wealth, influence and power pile up into the largest hands. Private asset portfolios exceed the budgets of states.
ROZHODUJME SPOLEČNĚAN ACTIVE CITIZEN BETWEEN ELECTIONS
Democracy 2.0 Active citizen engagement between elections — bottom up.
Society is dividing. Trust in politics is falling. The questions nobody has time to answer keep piling up. Citizens' assemblies are a new democratic tool that gives this a counterweight — a randomly selected group of residents, time to get to grips with a topic, space for an informed debate, and a public voice that cannot be ignored.
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WHY NOW
Society is extremely divided. Democracy needs more than elections.
We live in a time when trust between people and political representatives is falling apart. Scientific analyses, technocratic solutions, "there is no alternative" — all of this has long been pushing citizens away from public affairs. People then no longer talk to each other; they talk against each other.
SIX CRISES OF OUR TIME
What is pressing on democracy here and now.
The word "crisis" comes from the Greek krínein — to choose, to decide. The six crises below are not catastrophes. They are transitional states in which a decision needs to be made. The citizens' assembly is a tool for doing that together and thoughtfully.
Crisis of trust
Trust in politics, in elites and in the future is falling across countries. People are losing their anchoring and identity.
Crisis of the boundary
Globalisation connects the distant but disconnects neighbours. The local community weakens — we live next to each other, not together.
Crisis of causality
The world is changing exponentially. Linear logic no longer holds — even major events arrive "out of the blue".
Crisis of values
It is no longer a dispute between good and evil, but a clash of two goods — the rights of minorities against the rights of the majority, security against privacy.
Crisis of crises
Conflicts, geopolitical tension, black swans. Our ability to predict crises has fallen apart.
WHAT A CITIZENS' ASSEMBLY IS
Three things that citizens' assemblies do differently.
A statistical sample, not applications
We draw participants by lot from those who register, so that the group's composition statistically matches the residents of a given locality by place of residence, age and gender. Publicly, anonymously, under the oversight of representatives of civic associations.
Time to understand the topic
Participants receive printed materials and at the meetings they hear experts from across the spectrum of opinion — economists, lawyers, sociologists, representatives of the parties concerned. Without political pressure, with time for questions.
A shared voice that cannot be ignored
The group formulates recommendations through shared judgement — the overlap of opinions, not majority voting. The main outcome is informed feedback to politicians, to which they must respond publicly.
TWO PATHS TO GETTING STARTED
A citizens' assembly can arise from below as well as from above.
The principle — drawing by lot, materials, facilitated debate — is the same in both cases. The only difference is who brings the question.
BOTTOM UP
A citizens' initiative
Citizens genuinely need to assess a specific issue or resolve it. The topic comes from a comprehensive document (the Sustainable Development Strategy), from analyses or from research. Participants choose it themselves.
- Open registration for residents
- Choice of topic from the strategy / analyses
- Independence from the authority — no political games
- Recommendations & further pressure towards politicians
currently: 1st assembly Prague 1 — short-term rentals
TOP DOWN
An institution's commission
A specific question is formulated by the commissioner — a city, region, ministry, government — and it needs an informed opinion from citizens. Following the model of assemblies in Sopot, Paris, Brussels or Ireland.
- The commissioner brings the question
- Participants hear experts from all sides
- Recommendations are returned to the commissioner
- A commitment to respond publicly to every point
suitable for: cities, regions, the government, the EU
STATISTICAL SAMPLE
100 people who match your locality.
After open registration of citizens, participants are drawn by lot so that the individual categories are filled — the ratio of women and men, age groups and distribution by neighbourhood. We draw on public data from the Czech Statistical Office.
Typically a city, a city district or the whole country is divided into smaller territorial units (neighbourhoods, districts, regions). The group's composition then statistically matches the population of a given locality — it is not a poll of everyone, nor a referendum. It is a sample that has the time to get to grips with a topic and whose voice then carries weight.
Details of the draw →OUTCOMES
A recommendation is the first step towards solving a problem. Not the last.
A citizens' assembly formulates an informed recommendation. But what happens to it depends on how strongly the wider public stands behind it. At the assembly, participants can therefore decide for themselves which further forms of supporting the topic they will use. The recommendation thus does not stay just on paper — it gains public weight.
Handover of the recommendation
A public handover to the council / commissioner. Politicians must respond to the recommendation point by point.
An open letter
A joint signature of a hundred participants and supporters — addressed to institutions, the media or the public.
A petition
When the topic goes beyond the level of a city district. Collecting signatures, handing them to the petitions committee, parliamentary deliberation.
Media pressure & public dialogue
Press statements, interviews, social media. A recommendation is strongest when people know about it.
A public hearing
A discussion with the institutions concerned in the presence of participants and journalists — the assembly's outcome gets a name and a face.
Long-term monitoring
The community of participants stays in contact and watches how the recommendation is being fulfilled. An account that stays open over time.
WHY PRAGUE 1
We start where we know the ground.
We have known the Prague 1 area for more than 5 years. We have run participatory processes here and co-authored the Sustainable Development Strategy of the Prague 1 district, in whose creation 2 573 people took part. The council approved the strategy — but in many points it so far remains only on paper.
Across various projects, more than 5 000 citizens of Prague 1 have taken part in our participatory processes (some voices may recur) and a further thousands of people from the surroundings — from other city districts and the whole of Prague.
We want the heart of Czechia — the historic centre, where only thousands of residents live and tens of thousands of visitors come every day — not to have to be ashamed of its state. So that the city is once again for those who live here.
Prague 1 is a pilot. Tomorrow it will be possible to do this anywhere else — in another city, region, or even nationwide.
5+ years of experience with participation in Prague 1
5 000+ citizens of Prague 1 involved in participatory processes
2 573 people involved in creating the sustainable development strategy
189 registered for the 1st assembly Prague 1 (2026)