In July 2024, the Paris City Council made history by adopting a Citizen Bill on Homelessness drafted by the permanent Paris Citizens’ Assembly—the first time a major political body directly passed legislation written by a citizens’ assembly into law.
While this outcome is remarkable in itself, what deserves particular attention is the innovative process that brought it about, especially in the final stages where assembly members worked directly with political officials and civil servants to transform their recommendations into actionable policy.
In this essay, written for McGill Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, Claudia Chwalisz examines how the permanent Paris Citizens’ Assembly has evolved beyond the traditional model of citizens’ assemblies, where recommendations are handed to officials who take months to respond before passing them to civil servants.
Claudia shows how it has pioneered a collaborative approach that brings citizens, politicians, and administrators together in the crucial implementation phase. This essay focuses on the mechanics that made that final phase work, and also includes considerations for adapting this model to other cities and to the Canadian context in particular.
This article was first published by McGill Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy in April 2025, as part of 'Deliberative Approaches to Inclusive Governance: An Essay Series Part of the Democratic Legitimacy for AI Initiative'.
Photo credit: Henri Garat / City of Paris
Read the full paper by Claudia here