The Democratic Odyssey is a crowdsourced, decentralized and collaborative campaign developing a concept and strategy to institutionalise a permanent peoples’ assembly and participatory eco-system in the European Union.
By building on lessons learned from the Conference on the Future of Europe (COFE) and other deliberative experiments, we are organizing a randomly selected transnational peoples’ assembly as a prototype for a permanent Peoples’ Assembly for Europe; showcasing how citizen participation can be enacted in all stages of the EU’s policy processes, from agenda setting and legislative initiative to co-legislation and even constitutional Treaty Change. Our vision is holistic: to demonstrate how to combine the design of transnational assemblies with pre-existing instruments of citizen participation (such as European Citizens’ Initiatives) and how concretely to embed citizen participation and deliberation in the multi-layered ecosystem of representative democracy in the EU.
A consortium of partners led by the EUI’s STG Transnational Democracy Programme leads the crowd-sourced conceptual framework and overall strategy to institutionalise a permanent citizens’ assembly and participatory eco-system in the EU. The aim is to provide momentum to the eventual adoption of such an assembly as a formal part of the EU system of governance. The consortium does so by organising an actionable pilot 2024/2025, that will showcase how deliberation can be enacted in all stages of the EU’s policy processes, from agenda setting and legislative initiative to co-legislation.
The Democratic Odyssey is co-funded by the European Union, Berggruen Institute, ERSTE Stiftung and Salvia Foundation.
Its growing consortium of partner institutions currently includes European University Institute, Particip-Action, European Alternatives, Citizens Take Over Europe, Mission Publiques, The Democracy and Culture Foundation, Mehr Demokratie, DemNext, PHOENIX, Eliamep, Real Deal, European Democracy Hub, Democracy International, WEMOVE Europe, Europe Calling, CEPS, ASHOKA, Seesox, The Good Lobby, Democracy R&D, Democratic Society, ECI Campaign, ifok, Centre for the Politics of Feelings, Nets4Dem, GloCAN, Sortition Europe, European Capital of Democracy, Prossima Democrazia, Out There Media, Out There Impact, EU-Ciembly.
The Democratic Odyssey was conceived and launched as a long-term journey through the rugged landscape of democratic contemporary pathologies. As a decentralised, collaborative and transparent exercise of crowdsourcing and co-creation, it seeks to bring together as many contributors as possible in different capacities and with different roles in the form of a Constituent Network.
People
Principal investigator
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![Portrait picture of Kalypso Nicolaidis]()
Kalypso Nicolaidis
Full-time Professor
Florence School of Transnational Governance
Project management and operational team
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![Portrait picture of Andrea Gaiba]()
Andrea Gaiba
Research Associate
Florence School of Transnational Governance
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![Portrait picture of Ulrike Liebert]()
Ulrike Liebert
Part-time Professor
Florence School of Transnational Governance
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![Portrait picture of Hanorah Hardy]()
Hanorah Hardy
Project Associate
Florence School of Transnational Governance
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![Portrait picture of Irene Alonso Toucido]()
Irene Alonso Toucido
European Alternatives