First weekend of Dunfermline New City Assembly lays a fantastic foundationDunfermline, Scotland’s ancient capital, feels like the ideal place to explore new ways for communities to influence decisions. This weekend saw the first meeting of the Dunfermline New City Assembly — a project close to...Posted 26 Jan 2026
What Denmark’s Folkemødet can teach us about rebuilding trust in democracyThis summer, I visited Folkemødet, Denmark’s annual democracy festival held in the coastal town of Allinge on the island of Bornholm. It’s a place where citizens, politicians, NGOs, and businesses gather in a relaxed, open-air...Posted 01 Sep 2025
Government minister visits Dunfermline to find out about Citizens’ Assembly projectLast week, Dunfermline took another confident stride toward becoming a beacon of democratic innovation in Scotland. On Tuesday, Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee visited the Abbeyview Community Hub to meet with local councillors, Fife Council...Posted 27 Aug 2025
What are the benefits of Citizens’ Assemblies, and should they be used more?At the ERS, we’ve long campaigned for more involvement of citizens in the decisions that affect them. For politics to work for people like us, it needs to include people like us. Too often, public...Posted 03 Oct 2024
A future Labour government would be right to use Citizens’ AssembliesThis morning it was revealed in The Times that Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff and former leading Civil Servant, is considering the use of Citizens’ Assemblies. Gray made the comments by referring to...Posted 19 Feb 2024
Lesley Riddoch’s State of Scottish Democracy lectureThank you to everyone who made it along to hear author and broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch, present the second of our annual ERS State of Scottish Democracy lecture. We are pleased to publish a video of...Posted 28 Sep 2023
ERS Scotland’s State of Scottish Democracy lecture draws crowd in GlasgowThank you to everyone who made it along to Govan’s Pearce Institute to hear Professor James Mitchell present the first-ever ERS Scotland State of Scottish Democracy lecture. The event was a real success. We are...Posted 28 Nov 2022
Don’t miss one of Scotland’s leading political experts in new annual lectureERS Scotland is hosting the inaugural State of Scottish Democracy lecture next week. The event takes place on Thursday 17th November, in Govan’s Pearce Institute, and will be addressed by Professor James Mitchell. The idea...Posted 11 Nov 2022
ERS Scotland: Our plans for the years aheadAt ERS Scotland we are constantly monitoring the political seas and updating our course to make sure we have the proper heading. Following this year’s local elections, the elections to the Scottish Parliament in 2021,...Posted 24 May 2022
Scottish local democracy can build and strengthen our communitiesDemocracy is the right for people to decide how the place where they live is run. But too few people now believe that this right is being honoured, too few believe that they decide and...Posted 13 May 2022