Our Model
The Agenda Assembly as the first step to a system of global deliberation.
The Agenda Assembly will empower everyday citizens to decide which global issues are priorities for global governance. Building a platform for everyday people to define the issues for deliberation is critical to democratizing the initiative process of citizens’ assemblies.
Composition
The WCA will be composed of 171 everyday humans coming from all over the world.
Recruitment by Region
In moving away from nation-state divides, the WCA recruits one participant from one region. As a draft, we have divided the world into 171 regions. Every region has around 38-40 million people; while some constitute one nation, others are composed of more than one nation, or a part of one nation.*
*The work presented here is a first approximation. Calculations & anthropological scholarship behind the groupings will continue to be updated in coming iterations.
See the full resolution map of our preliminary regions. Click here to download map.
The WCA is a sample of the world population descriptive in terms of four criteria : region, age, gender and socio-economic level.
_Regional Criteria
We define super regions to establish bigger entities based on cultural similarities. Each super region includes a number of regions (which is the same number of participants) defined by a certain cultural common ground.*
*Super Regions shown here reflects a preliminary draft of regional grouping. More extensive anthropological work will have to be conducted to rigorously define Super Regions.
World Distribution #SuperRegion
To reflect this distribution, the ideal number of participants would include: 29 from China, 25 from Central & South Africa, 23 from East Asia, 15 from Europe & Russia, 30 from India, 12 from the English-Speaking World, 20 from the Muslim World, and 17 from the Americas & Iberia.
_Gender Criteria
World Distribution #Gender
The proportion of males in the global population is higher by a small margin. In order to reflect this minor discrepancy within our sample of 171 participants, we need one more male member than female (86 and 85).
_Age Criteria
World Distribution #Age
There will need to be an age limitation for children. We can establish a preliminary lower-limit age at 12 years old. Younger kids must be represented by their main caretaker. Ideal number of participants are: 30 under 10, 28 in their 10’s, 26 in their 20’s, 25 in their 30’s, 21 in their 40’s, 18 in their 50’s, 13 in their 60’s, 7 in their 70’s, and 3 over 80 years.
_Socioeconomic Criteria
World Distribution #Income
The poor live on $2 or less daily, low income on $2 to $10, middle income on $10 to $20, upper-middle income on $20 to $50, and high income on more than $50. Ideal number of participants are: 26 poor, 96 low income, 22 middle income, 15 upper-mid income, and 12 high income. As you can see, true representation means a staggering majority of participants are poor and low income people.
Principles & Vision
+ 1. Filling the democratic deficit
The WCA project aims to create a deliberative citizens’ assembly composed of everyday people to democratize and reinforce contemporary frameworks of addressing global challenges. Participants will be randomly selected to create a sample of the world population based on basic demographic criteria.
+ 2. Diversifying viewpoints
Deliberately moving away from representative negotiation between nations, participants will present their own lived experiences and expertise, rather than being delegates of their nations.
+ 3. Inclusive informed deliberation
The WCA utilizes inclusive informed deliberation, pioneering an alternative to existing parliamentary and negotiation-based formats of global governance.
+ 4. Building legitimacy
The WCA will attempt to influence national governments and global institutions. The global legitimacy of the WCA will be based on its democratic method and transparency of process.
+ 5. Iterative project building
The WCA promotes “active project building” wherein project design is improved through pilot testing and on-the-ground creation. Learning discoveries will be compiled into a final design that will be submitted to international institutions to motivate the creation of such a body.