Constitutonal Convention and Citizens’ Assembly News
(publications not otherwise included on the state-specific clearinghouse websites)
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Past Compilations by J.H. Snider
Primarily for his own personal use in recent years, J.H. Snider has been compiling information on miscellaneous constitutional conventions and citizens’ assemblies since the early 2000s. For example, from 2016 to 2021 he maintained the LinkedIn Group, The Constitutional Convention and Citizens’ Assembly Clearinghouse.
This LinkedIn group replaced an earlier Facebook group, Constitutional Convention and Citizens Assembly Based Democratic Reform Facebook Group (2012-2015) and previous Facebook group with the same title (2009-2012). Both were mysteriously deleted by Facebook without any notice, subsequent explanation, or means of contacting Facebook, which led to the switchover to LinkedIn. Equally mysteriously, Facebook reposted and combined both Facebook groups years later–again, without any notice or explanation. Perhaps someone responded to Snider’s numerous emails to Facebook that never received a reply. However, all the members of the first and much larger Facebook group were lost, and Snider gave up on recreating that membership.
The Facebook 2009-2012 Facebook group replaced the Citizens Assembly News Digest, a newsletter sent via e-mail to scholars and practitioners.
The Citizens Assembly News Digest, in turn, replaced the Citizens Assembly Blog, which during 2006 and 2007 covered citizen assemblies on electoral reform in British Columbia, Canada; Ontario, Canada; and the Netherlands.
The Citizens Assembly Blog, in turn, replaced an email listserv covering a bipartisan California Senate prospective and then later formal bill for a California citizens assembly co-sponsored by two California state senators. When that bill was defeated, the focus switched to passing an innovative redistricting proposal based on a partially randomly selected redistricting commission, which voters passed via a constitutional initiative. The email listserv stopped when the bill in California’s Legislature was defeated.
Early versions of J.H. Snider’s thinking on related issues can be found at: Snider, J. H. (1994). “Democracy On-Line.” The Futurist 28: 15-19; Snider, J. H. (2006). “Solving a Classic Dilemma of Democratic Politics: Who Will Guard the Guardians?” National Civic Review(Winter); and Snider, J. H. (2007). From Dahl to O’Leary: 36 Years of the “Yale School of Democratic Reform”. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 3(1).