Private Money and Public Goods: Considerations for Funding Democratic Deliberation Projects

Deliberative democracy promises transformative politics, especially when ordinary citizens have the space and time for collective, informed and considered deliberations. When governments do not commission the fora for citizen deliberation, known as mini-publics, the pilots, experiments, or projects that intend to showcase this transformative potential rely on successful financing and funding. The first sitting of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly stands as an example of this transformative potential. The Assembly’s recommendations are linked to the referendum vote to amend the Irish Constitution, repealing the 8th amendment. However, pilots like We the People, a pilot study funded by a grant from Atlantic Philanthropies, preceded the institutionalization of the Citizens’ Assembly. In other cases, depending on competition for funding to effect such change can have negative consequences, especially in attempts for democratization or strengthening democracy. Other example such as Big Tech commissioning and funding projects of consultation inspired by deliberative democracy also raise more questions about having to resolve the connection between the enabling and constraining effects of private money on political transformative and aspirational projects. According to a 2020 OECD report on innovative citizen participation, the average cost of a citizens’ assembly (one of the many structures of mini-publics) is 1.8 million euros.  In this paper, we aim to discuss the role of private funding in mini-publics pilots, experiments or projects and the limits of the competition of this funding on the emancipatory promise of deliberative democracy.