King's College London

The Lords’ Constitution Committee is collecting evidence on the future governance of the UK and is drawing on work from academics, think tanks, campaign groups and local authorities from across the country.

Among the written evidence presented to the committee in May was a report compiled by a team of seven academics from political economy, which included Dr Federica Carugati, Dr Andrew Blick, Dr Damien Bol, Professor Graham Allen, Dr Rod Dacombe, Professor Bobby Duffy, and Dr Marta Wojciechowska.

The report examines the potential of deliberative democracy to contribute to the reform of governance in the UK and makes a series of recommendations for committee members to consider.

The report, presented to the committee in May, notes: “There is a clear potential for deliberative democratic innovations to improve the quality of governance in a wide range of areas. A large body of research has identified benefits including the inclusion of a greater number of views in public decisions, higher levels of participation amongst marginalised groups and increased perceptions of the legitimacy of public decisions.”

Among a list of recommendations, the academics call for a nationwide citizens’ convention to examine the future of governance in the UK and increased resources for deprived areas in an effort to increase democratic participation.

Lead author, Dr Dacombe said: "We were very pleased to present this evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee, which draws on the work of a number of colleagues working in the Department of Political Economy and elsewhere at King's.

"Over recent years the department has developed into a significant centre of expertise on deliberative democracy. We believe that this is an area of our research which readily translates into policy and practice and look forward to continuing this theme of our work throughout 2021 and beyond."

You can read the report in full here.