4:51 p.m., January 4, 2021
The commitment was made on November 24, during Emmanuel Macron’s address to the French: “A scientific committee will be responsible for monitoring vaccination. A collective of citizens will also be set up to involve the population more broadly. ” This raffle process began on Monday, as announced on JDD in its edition of the day before, with the start of the selection of 35 people chosen according to criteria of age, gender, region, level of qualification, socio-professional category and type of dwelling. And taking into account their position with regard to the vaccination campaign in France, since the objective set by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese), which hosts this work, is to have a diversity of opinions on the subject, favorable or not.
Also read – INFO JDD. Monitoring of the vaccine campaign: the drawing of lots for the citizen collective wanted by Macron begins Monday
The initiative has been criticized or mocked by elected officials from all sides since Sunday. From the PCF (“Why not a bullet to the prisoner?”, Asked the deputy Stéphane Peu) to the RN (“This government is a permanent gag”, lamented the vice-president Steeve Briois) passing by elected LR, of the UDI (“Do the winners of the Euromillion therefore represent France?”, according to its president Jean-Christophe Lagarde), of the PS (“There is then a race in the bag to keep only ten? “, amused the deputy Boris Vallaud) or relatives of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
However, the exercise of drawing lots for citizens to express themselves on a subject is not unprecedented, in France as elsewhere in the world. Here is what we can say about it.
A participatory democracy tool promoted after the yellow vests crisis
The establishment of an “assembly of citizens drawn by lot” was one of the demands of the protest movement of yellow vests during the winter of 2018-2019. The idea resulted, at the end of the great national debate organized by the government, in the launch of the citizens’ convention on the climate. Some 150 people had in the end made as many proposals, which Emmanuel Macron undertook to take up almost all of them.
This time, the work of the future collective of citizens responsible for monitoring the vaccination campaign will be different. He will not take a decision himself but, indicated the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, will bring up the “questions” or “resistance” of the population with regard to these vaccines and will make “observations” on the strategy adopted. by the government. Its mission is therefore above all consultative. This collective is one of the four entities united within the Orientation Council chaired by Alain Fischer, the “vaccine mister” of the government, with a scientific committee, a committee of elected officials and a committee representing the various actors involved (professionals health, institutions, patients).
One way to respond to the public’s mistrust
The choice to draw lots of citizens is a form of participatory democracy. This means that for vaccines as in other situations before, the objective of such an initiative is to strengthen the participation of citizens, who are otherwise often distrustful of their political leaders, in a decision-making process. But the choice made by Emmanuel Macron at the end of November aims in this case to respond to a mistrust of another type: that of the French with regard to a vaccine against Covid-19. France is thus one of the most suspicious countries in the world, a majority of the population not intending to be vaccinated.
Will a committee of 35 citizens come to remove the many doubts expressed? No doubt not, but this allows the executive to argue that “transparency” accompanies its vaccine strategy. Which, given the start of the campaign which only resulted in a very low number of vaccinations, is far from silencing the critics …
Communication object or added value?
Critics of such a project contest both the lack of legitimacy of the people chosen and the circumvention of representative democracy, namely the representatives of Parliament. Others argue a “gimmick” that would only serve government communication. This is where the main difficulty of such a tool lies, according to the promoters of this method: to appear sufficiently transparent and impartial to be credible in the eyes of the public, but also to have a purpose immediately known to all. to be understood.
Read also – Emmanuel Macron wants a citizens’ assembly: here is what has been done elsewhere and the lessons to be learned
Many experiments carried out abroad have shown that it can work. In Ireland, for example, a citizens’ convention in 2016 resulted in the recognition of the right to abortion. Specialists point out in particular the fact that citizens, without being subjected to pressure from voters, their party or lobbies, are able to formulate ambitious proposals. “The productions of the citizens’ assemblies are always of good quality, that comes up against all the prejudices on the supposed incompetence of the citizens”, summarized for its part in JDD Loïc Blondiaux, professor of political science at the Sorbonne and specialist in deliberative tools.
In France, the culture of drawing lots, practiced since Antiquity, remains weak, apart from a few local experiences and now the precedent of the climate convention. It can also be encouraged, especially on the left, to select candidates for elections.
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