From Participation to Power: Why the Citizens’ Assembly Report Validates the People’s Assembly
What the 2022 Citizens’ Assembly Report Tells Us About Building Sovereignty from the Ground Up
A 2022 government-backed study proved what many of us already knew: people don’t just want to be heard—they want a permanent role in shaping the future. This article shows how the People’s Assembly model builds on that evidence to create something more powerful than consultation. It creates constitutional infrastructure—from the ground up.
🧠 What the 2022 Report Found
In 2022, the Scottish Government published its official evaluation of the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland. It was conducted by a team of researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Newcastle, based on seven sources of data: surveys, interviews, observation, and participant feedback.
The results were clear:
> “Participants reported feeling more informed, more confident in their political knowledge, and more likely to engage in civic life after taking part.” > — Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: Research Report, 2022
> “The Assembly process was seen as fair, inclusive, and empowering. Many participants described it as a transformative experience.” > — ibid.
> “There was strong support for embedding Citizens’ Assemblies into Scotland’s democratic infrastructure.” > — ibid.
This isn’t theory. It’s direct evidence that structured, transparent, citizen-led assemblies work. And participants wanted more.
🛠️ Why This Validates the People’s Assembly Model
The People’s Assembly takes the core strengths demonstrated by the national Citizens’ Assembly and localises them through the Community Council structure—empowered by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.
Where the national assembly facilitated broad deliberation on Scotland’s future, the People’s Assembly enables localised deliberation via community bodies. Instead of relying on randomly selected participants, it opens the door to broader public participation—with verified local mandates. And while the Citizens’ Assembly was a temporary, government-commissioned exercise submitting recommendations to ministers, the People’s Assembly is permanent, civic-led, and digitally verifiable—recording mandates in a public ledger rather than waiting for political response.
The 2022 evaluation confirmed that structure, transparency, and inclusion are what make these assemblies effective. The People’s Assembly doesn’t just replicate that model—it institutionalises it.
🏛️ Why Top-Down Approaches Fall Short
The report also echoed a frustration many communities feel:
> “Participants expressed frustration with traditional political processes, citing a lack of trust, transparency, and meaningful engagement.” > — Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: Research Report, 2022
That’s precisely the problem the People’s Assembly is solving. It doesn’t need permission from parties or parliaments. It builds a platform that enables communities to express constitutional intent through local referenda, verified consent, and public digital tools.
📚 What Comes Next?
The Citizens’ Assembly was a prototype. The People’s Assembly is a platform.
What began as a short-term commission has evolved into a long-term blueprint. It doesn’t ask, “Will you let us speak?” It asserts that the people already have a voice. What they’ve lacked—until now—is infrastructure to make it count.
And unlike party structures or think tank consultations, the People’s Assembly doesn’t just issue policy ideas. It defines how to ratify power—with or without ministerial approval.
The People’s Mandate
Why the Future of Sovereignty Starts with Community Councils and Verified Consent
> They gave us Citizens’ Assemblies to “listen to the people.” > We took that model—and built a framework to let them decide.
🧭 The Rhetoric vs. the Record
“You’re going against popular opinion.”
It’s the line that appears when the facts are inconvenient. Vague, unprovable, and almost always thrown in when someone can’t refute the content—but wants to discredit the source. In today’s fractured independence movement, that tactic is wielded like a shield against civic innovation.
But here's the truth: popular opinion has never been systematically captured. And when it was—in the form of the first national Citizens’ Assembly—what emerged wasn’t alignment with party gatekeepers. It was a hunger for transparency, structure, and participatory democracy that reaches far beyond performative slogans.
And still, that lesson goes ignored.
📚 The Assembly That Measured Engagement—And Transformed It
In 2022, the Scottish Government commissioned a landmark evaluation of its own Citizens’ Assembly pilot. The independent research was crystal clear:
> “Participants reported feeling more informed, more confident in their political knowledge, and more likely to engage in civic life after taking part.” > — Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: Research Report (2022)
The Assembly was no radical plot. It was a test case backed by government, facilitated by professionals, and grounded in randomly selected representation. And yet its success showed something many in power would rather ignore:
> “There was strong support for embedding Citizens’ Assemblies into Scotland’s democratic infrastructure.” > — ibid.
In short, when people are structurally included, their political confidence grows. That finding alone should have transformed how we approach sovereignty-building in Scotland.
🛠 From Consultation to Codification: Enter the People’s Assembly
While that original assembly ended with polite recommendations to government, the People’s Assembly model picks up where it left off—and carries it to its logical conclusion.
Rather than being a temporary consultation tool, the People’s Assembly is a permanent, civic-owned platform that transforms local participation into constitutional legitimacy.
It does so by:
Scaling deliberation through Community Councils using powers from the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015
Replacing randomness with verified local mandate
Digitally recording declarations via a public ledger
Treating assemblies not as feedback mechanisms, but as democratic engines
It doesn’t ask the government what’s allowed. It demonstrates what’s already authorised—by law, by community, and by evidence.
🧱 Community Councils: From Advisory Bodies to Constitutional Actors
Here’s the hinge point most miss: Community Councils are not obstacles. They are the foundation.
The 2015 Act provides councils with statutory recognition, participatory budgeting powers, and legal standing in local governance. The People’s Assembly activates those latent powers, turning councils into:
Deliberative assemblies, open to community input
Local mandate hubs, generating majority-backed positions
Constitutional actors, contributing to a verified, national ledger of intent
Unlike party structures, Community Councils have no allegiance to manifestos or election cycles. Their legitimacy comes directly from the community—and that legitimacy is what sovereignty requires.
🔧 The Ledger Makes the Mandate Traceable
Top-down approaches rely on assumed mandates and rhetorical unity. The People’s Assembly doesn’t.
Its digital infrastructure includes:
A consent verification ledger, where communities can ratify constitutional positions
Transparent declarations, sourced from real assemblies, not anonymous forums
A trail of civic will that any observer, court, or international body could audit
This is how you bridge the gap between community will and constitutional recognition.
Not with more campaigning—but with civic infrastructure.
⚖️ The Real Division: Those Who Build Consent, and Those Who Perform It
The parties love to talk about “unity”—but only under their own terms. Meanwhile, when the public organises outside party control, the story shifts: it’s now “divisive,” “unofficial,” or “out of step.”
But the 2022 Assembly showed us that people trust structure, not slogans. They want participation to have weight, not just sound.
What the People’s Assembly proves—by building on that official data—is this:
> Popular opinion isn’t undermined by civic models like ours. It’s clarified, codified, and finally made usable.
And if the state no longer acts on that clarity, then the people must.
🧭 Conclusion: From Pilot to Platform
The Citizens’ Assembly was a window. The People’s Assembly is a doorway.
One listened. The other acts.
If sovereignty is to mean anything, it must begin in communities—not as a protest, but as a procedure. The People’s Assembly offers exactly that: a civic scaffold rooted in law, powered by people, and verifiable by anyone.
And if that unsettles those who’d rather control the optics?
Well, maybe it’s because we didn’t just echo “the will of the people.”
We built the ledger that can prove it.
📚 Evidence Pack: The People’s Mandate
1. Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: Evaluation Report (2022)
Source: Scottish Government Research Report Key Findings:
“Participants reported feeling more informed, more confident in their political knowledge, and more likely to engage in civic life after taking part.”
“The Assembly process was seen as fair, inclusive, and empowering. Many participants described it as a transformative experience.”
“There was strong support for embedding Citizens’ Assemblies into Scotland’s democratic infrastructure.”
Relevance: Validates the People’s Assembly model by proving that structured, inclusive, citizen-led deliberation increases civic confidence and trust.
2. Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015
Source: Legislation.gov.uk – Full Act Summary:
Grants Community Councils statutory recognition and participatory rights in local governance.
Enables communities to influence service delivery, asset ownership, and local outcomes.
Establishes legal basis for community-led planning and decision-making.
Relevance: Provides the legal foundation for using Community Councils as constitutional actors within the People’s Assembly framework.
3. Ipsos Scotland Polling (2024)
Source: Referenced in People’s Assembly Facebook Article Key Data:
71% of Scots support Devo-Max (expanded devolved powers).
Two-thirds support a second question on constitutional options in any future vote.
Relevance: Demonstrates public appetite for constitutional reform beyond binary independence framing.
4. Survation for Progress Scotland (2024)
Source: Cited in People’s Assembly Article Key Data:
64% support devolving cost-of-living powers to Holyrood.
61% want energy policy devolved.
55% support devolving immigration and asylum policy.
71% believe Scotland’s relationship with Europe would be better if independent.
Relevance: Undermines claims that civic-led reform is fringe or unpopular.
5. Dunfermline Citizens’ Assembly Pilot (2025)
Source: Referenced in People’s Assembly Article Key Data:
Over 90% participant satisfaction.
Participants rated assemblies as more effective than party conferences or top-down consultations.
Relevance: Reinforces the legitimacy of deliberative models and supports the Assembly’s permanent civic infrastructure.
6. People’s Assembly Platform (2020–Present)
Source: People’s Assembly Facebook Archive Key Innovations:
First to propose a decentralised, digitally verifiable civic mandate system.
Introduced the concept of a Verified Consent Ledger.
Built on open-source tools, localised declarations, and community-led ratification.
Relevance: Establishes historical precedence and innovation leadership in civic sovereignty infrastructure.