Mission and Purpose

Agora is a citizens' political movement which advocates a form of democracy by lot. Its central objective is to inspire a more representative form of democracy, with more deliberation and participation, by establishing a Citizens' Assembly with members drawn by lot, working in parallel with the elected Parliament.

Origins and Development 

To achieve this objective, Agora decided to stand in the regional elections in May 2019 in the Brussels-Capital Region. Thanks to the trust of 3629 Brussels voters, the movement won one seat in the Brussels Parliament. 

Agora is now organising a Brussels Citizens' Assembly, made up of 89 Brussels residents drawn by lot, whose proposals are then shared in Parliament by the elected spokesperson. At the same time, Agora works within parliament on participative democracy in general, with the particular aim of establishing the Assembly as a more permanent institution.

Through the assembly, Agora hopes to encourage the implementation of true citizen democracy. In addition to its legislative efforts, the Assembly also serves as a tool to inspire better representation, encourage debate and discussion, and increase participation, throughout the whole of society.

Organizational Structure, Membership, and Funding

As a volunteer organisation, Agora is organised in working groups, focussing on the assembly, parliamentary work, communication, external relations and internal organisation. Agora is supported by a handful of employees.

Specializations, Methods and Tools

Agora promotes the citizen assembly model, and to that end launched the Brussels Citizens' Assembly (BCA) as an assembly consisting of 89 citizens drawn by lot.

This sample is statistically representative of the population in terms of age, gender and level of education.

This Assembly seeks to be deliberative, since the participants have different opinions, and are encouraged to share these, allowing ideas to develop and evolve.

Finally, the system is participatory in the sense that every Brussels resident has a real chance to actively participate in the decision-making process.

Major Projects and Events

Assemblies have been organised since 2019.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

Information about the assembly, it's outcomes and parliamentary follow-up can be found on the Agora website!

Publications

References

[1] "Home", Agora.Brussels, Accessed April 16, 2019, https://www.agora.brussels/ 

External Links

Official website: https://www.agora.brussels/ 

Notes 

Lead image: Agora.Brussels/Facebook, http://bit.ly/2VMZxDb