Doing Democracy Ourselves & the Convention of the Future Armenian
In the face of the "metacrisis" confronting the world today, characterized by unprecedented complexity and uncertainty, we at the CII have been appreciating the work of the ISWE Foundation pioneering new approaches to democratic governance.
At its core, ISWE embraces a whole systems approach to governance that empowers communities to shape their collective future. We find great resonance in their strategic democratic innovation and the Convention of the Future Armenian as embodiments of wise democracy’s prime directive: to appreciate, evoke, and engage the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole.
So on 22nd January ‘24 we were delighted to feature Rich Wilson, CEO of ISWE as a guest for our monthly Real World Co-Intelligence learning calls.
You’ll find Rich’s presentation at 5:50mins in the video below:
Self Rule: Doing Democracy Ourselves
Rich shared his background: he worked in academia, then in the world of policy and government, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and in 2004 he founded Involve UK, Britain’s largest public participation charity, setting up hundreds of participatory projects.
Rich describes himself as an ‘instrumentalist’ driven by a desire to make the world a better place. This has seen him transition from working for change as an insider, with governments, to implementing whole systems approaches to change both within and outside of governmental institutions. Now as co-founder of ISWE, Rich and his colleagues work with networks across the world supporting the emergence of a global movement of “people-powered” leadership and citizens’ assemblies.
In terms of dealing with crises, Rich argued that we’re living in a time of governance failure and the rise in popularity of citizens’ deliberative processes such as Citizens’ Assemblies ties in with a growing desire for major change in our political systems around the world. Within this context, in a spirit of humility and not knowing all the answers, he delivered his presentation “Self Rule - Doing Democracy Ourselves”.
Whilst Citizens’ Assemblies show incredible promise, Rich argues for greater self awareness in the democracy field. A recognition that we don't really know what we're doing when it comes to affecting change in the world. For example, even though there are strict conditions surrounding the delivery of assemblies, in terms of actually addressing issues like climate change we can’t say we know what success looks like.
If we're going to have democracies that are capable of meeting today's challenges we need new approaches that address the complexity of the issues we face. Rich and ISWE advocate a whole system view, seeing democracy beyond a narrow thing relating to voting or even citizens’ deliberation. It requires a transformation in the relationship between power holders and people, the activation of collective agency across society involving everything from the media, schools, education and businesses and processes that iterate with communities to learn and reflect on what works.
Rich says “when we're running these processes, if we assume that we can just write a report, even if a decision maker says that they're going to implement it, they nearly always don't. So there’s a real risk that what we're doing with deliberative processes is providing a facade, an impression of legitimacy to institutions which are not going to act in the way that people want them to.”
“Rather than entering a permissive relationship with powerholders we don't want to deny the power we have to get democracy done ourselves.” That depends upon having a greater literacy around how and where power is exercised, such as formal institutions like government and NGOs, informal settings like community groups, or hidden spaces like backroom deals. The aim is to create real impact by designing processes that activate these different levels of power.
The Convention of the Future Armenian
Image from The Future Armenian website
This is where the particular example of the Convention of the Future Armenian acts as a powerful case study of this kind of whole system approach to governance and ‘doing democracy ourselves.’
The Convention (for which ISWE played a supporting role in designing) took place in March 2023 in Yerevan, Armenia. It aimed at addressing the pressing challenges facing Armenia, including security issues and concerns about the preservation of its ancient culture. As a hybrid between a citizen Summit and a citizens’ assembly, the convention used sortition globally to gather participants from diverse backgrounds, with 40% coming from the Armenian diaspora.
The goal was to create a new governance chamber parallel to the existing government structure. This involved the establishment of an Affiliation Network, comprising journalists, civil society organizations, businesses, and influential individuals committed to supporting and implementing the convention's recommendations. Despite initial government reluctance to endorse the initiative, it gained significant traction and visibility, with widespread media coverage.
This allowed it to gain support from various other institutions which ended up supporting it and pledging to do their best to implement the recommendations.
The convention aims to carve out a new political space in Armenia, acknowledging the government's limitations in addressing the country's complex challenges. Through iteration it seeks to create a permanent platform for dialogue and decision-making on the country's future priorities, with plans to transition to a more digital format.
The theory of change underlying the convention emphasizes influencing institutions and mobilizing citizen action, while building a power block of supporters dedicated to implementing its recommendations. By providing a legitimate governance chamber, the convention aims to complement and even surpass the legitimacy of formal government structures.
With a similar theory at play in other spaces ISWE delivers, such as the Global Citizens Assembly, Rich notes “when people set up these Community assemblies, just like in Armenia, people come in behind to support them. It could be media, it could be money that's being raised, it could be organizations but people are hungry for new forms of legitimate governance that have new forms of power that give us hope in relation to the poly crisis.”
Further Resources
The full report of the Convention of the Future Armenian in English.
Account of the Convention process by ISWE (advisors to and observers of the convention.)
Case study of the Convention - excerpt from Tom Atlee’s upcoming book: Co-Intelligence: Beyond Smart into Wholeness, Interconnectedness, Co-Creativity and Wisdom
