Examining the preparatory phase of Knivsta Citizens' Assembly : A study of politicians’ and public officials’ intentions behind implementation

Abstract: Democratic innovations focusing on increased citizen engagement is believed to be important since they have the potential to revitalize representative democracy. However, criticism has also been raised claiming that democratic innovations only have a facade of deepening democracy. This study seeks to investigate the preparatory phase of the implementation of the Citizens’ Assembly in Knivsta municipality. Focusing on the intentions and aims of the politicians and public officials behind the implementation to investigate if previously recognized problems and criticism raised by the deliberative systems approach can be identified and answered to. In order to realise this, semi-structured interviews were conducted and complemented with documents from the public administration. The criticism raised by the deliberative systems approach acts a backbone to the study, whilst also serving a function to identify the problems and understand the intentions. The study finds that the intention and aims of the implementation is for the Citizens’ Assembly to be a genuine tool to deepen democracy. In addition, one of the problems found in previous research could clearly not be identified. The extent to which the other two problems can be identified is discussionable. Further studies are recommended to increase the understanding of how the intentions behind an initiative influences its outcome.