15 Citizens’ assemblies at supranational level: Addressing the EU and global democratic deficit

The problems related to the democratic deficit, lack of democratic legitimacy, and widening gap between citizens and decision-makers seem even more striking in the case of decision-making at supranational level. One response to this crisis of democracy at the supranational level has been the creation of citizens’ assemblies (CAs) promoted and implemented by the various actors: European Union, NGOs, international organizations, and social movements. Still, although all those actors advocated for the use of CAs at supranational level there are significant differences regarding the capacity of those actors as well as the CAs they promote to address the democratic deficit. Starting from this assumption, in the following pages I will analytically differentiate between CAs implemented by the European Union (EU), a system provided by the political authority and those CAs implemented by supranational actors that lack formally legitimate political authority.