Programme

Democracy Beyond Elections: Empowering Citizens, Strengthening Participation

University of Bristol Law School

Wills Memorial Building & 8-10 Berkeley Square, Bristol

17-18 March 2017

Friday, 17 March 2017

13:30-14:15: Registration

14:15-14:30: Welcome and Introduction

14:30-16:00: PANEL 1: Constitution-making and citizen participation [Chair: Tony Prosser (University of Bristol)

Alex Hudson (University of Texas at Austin), Does Public Participation Really Matter? The Case of Iceland's Crowdsourced Constitution
Jurgen Goossens (Ghent University & Erasmus University of Rotterdam), Direct Democracy and Constitutional Change: Do the People have an inalienable right to alter or abolish the Constitution?
Silvia Suteu (UCL), Constitutional Conventions: Between Citizen Empowerment and Passing the Buck

16:20-18:20: PANEL 2: Participation beyond national borders: The examples of the European Union and the Open Government Partnership [Chair: Patrick Capps (University of Bristol)]

Alberto Alemanno (HEC Paris), Citizen Lobbying: An EU perspective on democracy beyond elections
Adriana Bunea (University of Southampton), Transparency and lobbying regulation in the European Union: Explaining citizens and interest groups’ preferences for a mandatory Transparency Register
Firat Cengiz (University of Liverpool), Bringing the citizen back into EU democracy – against the input-output model and why deliberative democracy might be the answer
Joseph Foti (OGP), The Open Government Partnership: Evolutions in Practice and Discourse

Saturday, 18 March 2017

9:00-10:30: PANEL 3: Channelling social movements [Chair: Albert Sanchez Graells (University of Bristol)]

Sean Kippin (University of the West of Scotland), The UK Co-operative Party: Movement, relationship, and representation
Sabrina Germain (University of Surrey), The Participation of ‘For-Profit’ Actors in the Elaboration of Just Health Care Law
Andrea Felicetti (Scuola Normale Superiore), Social Movements as Sites of Political Innovation

11:00-13:00: PANEL 4: Institutional avenues for public input (I): Referendums and litigation [Chair: Stephen Tierney (University of Edinburgh)]

Adam Webster (University of Oxford), When Should Parliament Consult the People? Referendums in the UK, Australia and New Zealand
Elisenda Casanas-Adam (University of Edinburgh), Sub-state Independence Referendums and the Promise of a Fresh Constitutional Start
Virginia Passalacqua (European University Institute), Participation through Courts? The case of litigation for migrants’ rights before the Court of Justice of the EU
Ilias Trispiotis (University of Leeds), International Human Rights Mechanisms, Public Participation and Fairness

13:45-15:15: PANEL 5: Institutional avenues for public input (II) [Chair: Margherita Pieraccini (University of Bristol)]

Geerten Boogaard (Leiden University) & Harmen Binnema (Utrecht University), Aristotle meets Rousseau: Recent citizen assemblies (G1000’s) in the Netherlands
Jean-Sébastien Blais (Yukon’s Francophone School Board), Public consultation design: The use of a random selection method for selecting elected officials
Roberto Falanga (University of Lisbon) (with João Ferrão, not in attendance), Evaluating public participation in policymaking: Learning from narratives

15:30-16:30: Keynote Address: Archon Fung (Harvard Kennedy School), Saving Democracy From Ourselves: Ethical and Institutional Responses to Decline

16:50-17:30: Breakout groups

17:30-18:00: Conclusion and next steps

This event is supported by the British Academy through the Rising Stars Engagement Awards programme.