How to organize a collaboration of thousand citizens? (case on principle 6)

“This was a world first. Never before has this scale of exercise in deliberative democracy been entirely organised by citizens”

Cato Leonard, Glassroots.com

The G1000 is an initiative of the Foundation for Future Generations, a public foundation in Belgium with more than 10 years of experience in the field of citizens’ participation. More than a year ago, the citizens of Belgium elected the people they wanted to be governed by, but after a year of waiting there was still no government, so some citizens decided to be hands on and find solutions. Months of thinking followed, before they finally figured out a concrete model for giving new impetus to the process of eliminating the stalemate that has plagued Belgium for many years. 

Their plan was the G1000; a citizens’ summit of one thousand randomly selected residents of this country.  It relies on recent scientific research, relevant examples from abroad and new technologies.  The G1000 is a means to revive Belgium democracy.

Innovation is key everywhere, except so far in democracy. Companies must innovate, scientists must cross boundaries, athletes must break records and artists must reinvent themselves. But when it comes to the organisation of society, we have been happy with procedures that have been in place since 1830, even if we live in the year 2012. The G1000 questions the need to stick to a formula that is almost a century old.  It says that if democracy is no longer facilitated by the elections, or is even prevented by it, then it is for the citizens to help to find democratic alternatives.

G1000 relies on a process that consists of 3 phases and together they function like a funnel.  It started in 2010 with a broad online survey, which served to detect relevant topics.  During the second phase the G1000 citizens' summit was held - this event took place at Tour&Taxis in Brussels on 11 November 2011, where 704 people discussed several key themes.  At the third phase, 32 people from the big group were then selected to elaborate on the results over the course of three further weekends of focused deliberation.  The aim was to draw up a number of specific policy recommendations.

On June 10, 2011, the Manifesto of the G1000 was published in five national newspapers. The first 27 signatories were the initiators of the G1000. Within a few weeks of its publication more than 10,000 people had signed the Manifesto.

Read More about the G1000, here