The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS) launched a podcast entitled "Can there be politics without politicians?", which explores the concept of Citizens' Assemblies. This episode addresses how these democratic participation models work and their potential benefits in solving public problems.
Citizens' Assemblies work through the random selection of participants, allowing ordinary citizens to contribute to political decisions directly. The podcast highlights that these models can produce more effective and creative results in solving problems compared to traditional political systems.
However, the conversation also addresses criticisms of deliberative democracy. One of the main issues raised is the flaws associated with the random selection of participants, which may not guarantee ideal representativeness. Another mentioned criticism is the lack of time ordinary citizens have to dedicate to political activity, which limits effective participation.
The content is available on the FFMS website and was also published by Notícias de Aveiro, which highlighted it as a relevant topic for understanding new forms of democratic participation.
