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Dimension: Scalability

Manage subsidiarity

Ability to host decentralized processes simultaneously or sequentially and productively distill them into one central process.

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Process organizers
Process organizers address challenges of scale and time by connecting sequences or parallel processes in a predetermined logical manner. Different methods may be explored to engage different groups at different times.
Citizens' assembly organizers
Citizens' assembly organizers operate assemblies that address the same or different aspects of the issue and then develop a principled way of reconciling the work done in the different processes, sometimes by taking a subset of representatives or by completely merging.

Related Product Gaps

There are no related product gaps at the moment.

Related Goals and Research Questions

Goal: Hierarchical relationships between subsidiary and central processes that reflect legitimate governance principles

What are the options for managing the hierarchical relationships between processes, and their pros and cons?

Political Science
Related Capability: Manage subsidiarity

Under what conditions is a subsidiary/decentralized approach necessary or superior to a single scaled-out process, and how do organizers diagnose whether fragmentation serves deliberative quality or merely distributes work?

Political Science
Related Capability: Manage subsidiarity

What normative frameworks and transparent decision rules enable organizers to justify the weight given to different subsidiary processes in shaping central outcomes, and how can these be communicated to participants to maintain perceived fairness?

Ethics & Philosophy Political Science
Related Capability: Manage subsidiarity

Goal: Information that flows reliably between subsidiary and central processes in both directions, preserving fidelity and deliberative logic

Which information-distillation mechanisms (such as structured synthesis templates, tiered delegation systems, or multi-stage aggregation protocols) most effectively transmit salient deliberative insights from satellite processes to central processes without losing critical context or minoritarian viewpoints?

Communication & Media Political Science
Related Capability: Manage subsidiarity

What feedback and transmission protocols ensure that decisions or directions from central processes reach subsidiary processes in time to shape their work, and how do asynchronous vs. synchronous sequencing affect deliberative quality at each level?

Political Science Communication & Media
Related Capability: Manage subsidiarity

Related Resources

Federated Assemblies: representation guarantees across subsidiary panels

Federated Assemblies research explores algorithms for ensuring representation guarantees across subsidiary panels.
Research
Daniel Halpern, Ariel D. Procaccia, Ehud Shapiro and Nimrod Talmon

South Australia's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Citizens' Juries

The South Australia's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Citizens' Juries featured one jury completing a task that fed into a subsequent larger jury (2016).
Experimental Practice

Le Grand Débat National

A national consultation initiative launched by the French government in January-March 2019 in response to the Yellow Vests protests, inviting citizens to discuss taxation, public services, environmental issues, and democratic governance. Employed multiple engagement channels including town halls,...
Practice
French government