How Citizens Juries Stay Fair: 40 Years of Bias Evaluation Data

The Center for New Democratic Processes has tracked fairness in their citizens jury programs for over 40 years. Citizens juries bring regular people together to discuss important issues and make recommendations. This report shows how participants rated whether staff ran these events fairly, without favoring any particular viewpoint. From 1981 to 2019, they ran 35 different citizens juries on topics like healthcare, budgets, climate change, and elections. Most participants (usually 80-100%) felt the process was fair and unbiased. For example, in their 2018 Forest of Dean Citizens Jury in the UK, 100% of participants felt satisfied with the fairness. Even in projects with lower satisfaction, most people still felt the process was neutral or better. The organization believes they keep better records on staff neutrality than any other group doing citizen participation work worldwide. This data helps prove that citizens juries can be run fairly, which is important for building trust in democratic processes.

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