A groundbreaking report released Friday by the New America Foundation and Repair California recommends that a constitutional convention in California be made up of citizen delegates.
“As California grapples with a crisis of historic proportions, it is time to draw upon the genius of what has always been the Golden State’s greatest resource — Californians themselves,” said the report, “A Citizens Constitutional Convention for California: How to Avoid Partisanship and Special Interest Influence,” written by Steven Hill, director of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation.
California has been called an ungovernable state, plagued not only by systemic gridlock but also by bitter partisanship, special-interest influence and incumbent self-interest. Californians are calling for reform, with one of the options on the table being a constitutional convention. The Bay Area Council has called for a convention made up of 400 “citizen delegates,” randomly selected to form a scientifically representative sample of average Californians. But would nonexperts have the ability to propose complex public policy? Or, as one skeptic put it, “How can a room of dummies do something smart?”
The new report provides details about how such “citizen delegate” bodies work. The report examines numerous case studies. In post-Katrina New Orleans, 4,000 people, including the diaspora spread across 21 cities, were convened simultaneously to give input into how to spend scarce rebuilding dollars. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials in Lower Manhattan used various deliberative democracy methods to break a policy deadlock by involving thousands of New Yorkers in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. In California and other states, citizen consultation has been applied in a range of forums involving hundreds and even thousands of people to advance solutions to contentious issues such as tax reform, health care, housing, regional development and education.
The report concludes that a constitutional convention made up of a representative group of citizen delegates randomly selected from across the state has great potential.
“The truth is, average Californians are the only ones who can lead our state out of the quagmire of special interests and partisanship that currently is paralyzing it,” Hill said. “That’s because average Californians bring a special quality that too many incumbents and the political class in general do not have — a pragmatic desire to solve the state’s problems, regardless of ideology, partisanship or career self-interest.”
The report also points out that a statewide poll in November 2006 found that 73 percent of Californians have more faith in average people like themselves to design a reform process than they have in either elected leaders or even independent experts.
The report builds upon an earlier memo by Hill, “Crucial Details of a California Constitutional Convention: Delegation Selection Methods, Scope of the Convention, Public Participation.” That memo discusses selection and education of delegates, the scope of the issues that could be taken up at the convention and public participation in the convention.
This Friday and Saturday, hundreds of citizens of Southern California are meeting in two events to discuss a constitutional constitution. Click here for more information.
Click here or here for more information about a California constitutional convention.
— Liz Wu is the California media relations manager for the New America Foundation.