Ordinary citizens are rarely charged with making consequential decisions in representative democracies. Almost all consequential decisions are delegated to elected representatives or political appointees. On what basis should we judge whether decisions should be placed in the hands of ordinary citizens or delegated to political elites? I argue that decision-making authority should be allocated in whatever way an assembly of randomly selected citizens would choose, given reasonable beliefs about the consequences of their possible choices. The standard I defend is a variation of the principal-agent model of political representation, in which the people are viewed as a principal and officeholders as their agents. As it is usually formulated, the objectives of the people are defined by the preferences of the majority. I draw on this formulation in chapter 4 to explain why the majority might rationally prefer to delegate authority to a citizens’ assembly instead of an elected legislature and why they might rationally view citizens’ assemblies with distrust, when they are organized and administered by elites. But the standard formulation of the principal-agent model does not provide a coherent standard when the will of the majority is not well-defined. Several chapters on social choice theory explain this problem and why political theorists’ previous responses to it have been unconvincing. In light of this problem, I argue for a revisionary understanding of the principal-agent model, according to which the people and its will are identified not with the preferences of the majority but rather with the decisions of a citizens’ assembly. To motivate this approach I offer a critique of the recent literature on “epistemic democracy,” which describes an alternative form of justification for empowering ordinary citizens. Appeals to expertise and knowledge have historically figured prominently in justifications of political exclusion and hierarchy, but epistemic democrats put them to use in defending participatory forms of democratic politics. Epistemic democrats claim that decision processes in which inexpert, ordinary citizens participate can exhibit greater “collective wisdom” than elite- or expert-dominated decision-making. Chapters 2 and 3 explain why these arguments sit uncomfortably with the nature of disagreements in politics. / Government

The amount of global greenhouse gas emissions needs to be significantly reduced in order to reach the Paris agreement target of 1.5°C by 2050. Contemporary representative political systems have failed so far in adequately addressing the complex problem of climate change. This study looks at potential alternative or complementary decision-making and knowledge producing methods, more specifically the deliberative democratic method of citizens’ assemblies. The three core concepts discussed in this thesis are citizens assemblies, wicked problems and sustainable transformation. By critically discussing and combining these three concepts, this thesis sets out to analyze a specific Citizens’ Assembly, namely the one held in Ireland 2016-2018. The thesis analyzes both the Irish Citizens’ Assembly model proper and its recommendations. The model is analyzed through the theoretical lens of wicked problems, in order to determine to what extent the salient characteristics of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly model address complexity. In addition, the theoretical concept of sustainable transformation is used to analyze the Assembly’s recommendations, in order to determine how strong or weak they are in relation to this theory. A directed content analysis was used to help categorize the recommendations. The result of the study shows that the Irish Citizens’ Assembly model exhibited positive aspects in relation to appropriately addressing complexity. The transdisciplinary approach to knowledge production and the deliberative aspect of the Assembly process enhanced the reliability of the knowledge produced. The Assembly’s recommendations are, however, concluded to be weak as seen from a sustainable transformation perspective. The limited amount of time given to the topic of climate change by the Irish Citizens’ Assembly as well as the narrow focus of the information provided to the Assembly members are important factors in influencing this finding. Additional research is needed on the link between citizens’ assemblies, wicked problems and sustainable transformation. On the basis of the research presented in this thesis it is argued that the citizens assembly model might play a crucial part in how people and communities can deal with complex problems in the future