Page 220 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

218 A Project of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) Glossary Biases – There are many ways our brains actively work to bias our thinking and, therefore, our decision making. Each of these different sorts of biases can stop us from seeing an issue from a different perspective. This tendency can limit our understanding of new and different evidence and therefore restrict our ability to make the best overall decision. By understanding these biases and using different tools to help question others and ourselves we can access more information and weigh up data more thoroughly. Citizens’ Assembly – A citizens’ assembly is a group of people who are brought together to discuss an issue or issues and reach a conclusion about what they think should happen. Often randomly selected, the people who take part are chosen so they reflect the wider population in terms of demographics. Citizens’ assemblies give members of the public the time and opportunity to learn about and discuss a topic, before reaching conclusions. Assembly participants are asked to make trade-offs and arrive at workable recommendations. Commonly used to describe large format or national deliberations See also: Citizens’ Jury Mini-public Long-form deliberation Civic Lottery – The Civic Lottery is a process for randomly choosing individuals from within a specific population to address a policy issue. The process is based on a simple, random, and fair procedure that has been used throughout the world for centuries — the drawing of lots.