Citizen Juries

Citizen juries are one of a number of recent strategies for increasing public participation in scientific and technological policy decisions. Concerns about a decline in public participation in representative democracy and a “democratic deficit” have led to a focus on more deliberative democracy. This has spurred a search for alternative venues for seeking public input. [Page 51]Citizen juries, along with consensus conferences, focus groups, polls and referenda, and citizen panels, are one such venue. The idea of creating citizen juries arose in Germany and in the United States as early as the 1970s and has gained traction as concerns about lack of public involvement in traditional representative democracy have increased. Citizen juries have been used mainly in Europe and the United States, but they have ...