Arantzazulab translates into Basque the international guide on advanced knowledge for the design and implementation of Citizens’ Assemblies

Arantzazulab has signed a collaboration agreement with DemocracyNext with the aim of disseminating and developing knowledge on Deliberative Democracy. DemocracyNext is an independent, non-profit research and action institute. On the basis of the signed agreement, the first collaborative work consisted on translating the guide for the Design and Implementation of Citizens’ Assemblies into Basque, the guide was created in English and the first language that has been translated is Basque. 

The dissemination of Deliberative Democracy in the Basque Country is one of our main areas of work. We understand this in a broad sense (dissemination of deliberative processes with social stakeholders and citizens in order to deepen democracy and spread the collaborative culture both in public policies and in other private and public institutions, through different mechanisms and media), and we develop it based on three strategies: 

  • Scaling up: impact on public policies and laws to ensure citizens’ engagement in public decisions. 
  • Scaling out: designing and implementing new deliberative processes, influencing more people and disseminating this knowledge and promoting its practice to more citizens and local actors. 
  • Scaling deep: disseminating the impact of Deliberative Democracy and the principles of good practice, and disseminating the knowledge to local institutions and organised society for the development of processes such as Citizens’ Assemblies. 

In relation to this last objective, DemocracyNext has gathered advanced international knowledge and produced a guide for the design and implementation of Citizens’ Assemblies. The content of the guide is based on experiences and lessons learned from different processes developed in different countries. DemocracyNext members have included in the guide information from the publications they have previously authored: the OECD Deliberative Wave report; and the OECD Deliberative Democracy Toolbox, which collects data from 289 case studies. These include the two assemblies we have promoted in the Basque Country: the Citizens’ Assemblies of Gipuzkoa and Tolosa. 

The guide describes the steps to be taken in the design and implementation of Citizens’ Assemblies, and is illustrated with concrete examples on:  selecting and defining the topic, preparing the budget, planning the  calendar or selecting the participants. It also provides a series of useful templates for the working team that will be launching a deliberative process. Finally, in the Basque version, information specific to our context has been added, based on the practices of the Gipuzkoa and Tolosa Citizens’ Assemblies (as well as on the knowledge acquired in the forums and networks in this field). In this way, the guide available in Basque is enriched with the knowledge developed in the deliberative processes of  our immediate environment. 

You can read and download the contents by clickling on the following links: 

The Basque translation of the guide provides Basque public institutions and social actors with advanced knowledge in the field of Deliberative Democracy. It also gives visibility and importance to the Basque language in international forums in this field. For Arantzazulab, therefore, the guide represents an important step in the dissemination of this approach and practice of democratic innovation in our environment. 

Together with this guide, the Knowledge Portal that Arantzazulab will soon launch will also publish the materials and knowledge tools developed in the laboratory, bringing together the knowledge and studies that we have developed in our country. The aim is to disseminate Deliberative Democracy and place the knowledge generated at the service of institutions and citizens, in order to support and facilitate processes of innovation and transformation in this field. In short, to deepen democracy.