Professor Helene Landemore joined the International Budget Partnership to talk about the Great French National Debate—Macron’s deliberative answer to the Yellow Vest Protests that took place between January and March 2019–and how it can be read as a step toward the creation of what Landemore calls an “open democracy,” one in which the public is given greater input into the law- and policy-making process. The Great National Debate is also an interesting experiment in “deliberation at scale,” suggesting that it is possible for large, multicultural countries to create deliberative spaces for millions of people and not just the happy few of minipublics. While the French case of deliberation does not focus exclusively on budgets, fiscal issues, including tax, are one of several core issues for discussion, and the case has broader implications for public participation in policy and budget-making.
