5.6. Commissions
Ideas
- Permanent commissions composed of a mix of randomly selected citizens and specialists are tasked with studying a specific area of society.
- These permanent commissions also evaluate the effectiveness of laws already implemented.
- If necessary, temporary commissions are appointed to prepare for votes.
Permanent Commissions
These commissions observe and report on the state of the art in their field: economy, health, ethics, education... All societal themes are covered.
They allow institutions to know the state of the nation in general and to learn more about a specific field or to study the efficacy of past decisions.
They differ from Ministries in that they do not have executive power; however, their role of study and advice can be used by Ministries to define the best ways to implement a new Law.
Appointments
Members of the permanent commissions are selected randomly from voluntary applications:
- 50% are specialists in the field.
- 50% are citizens with no experience in the field.
The objective of this mixed representation is to encourage a good presentation of issues by non-experts and a good presentation of the challenges of the field by experts.
The members of permanent commissions are renewed at the same pace as most other institutions: 25% of the staff every year.
Mission
In a broad sense, the role of the permanent commissions is to inform the Nation about their area of expertise.
- They have no binding power, but their recommendations must be officially received.
- Their opinion may be solicited by public institutions, temporary commissions, or even businesses.
- They can submit draft legislation to the Representative Council.
- They evaluate the effectiveness of implemented laws.
- They publish best practices recommendations that can inspire national policies and maintain indicators that allow for the evaluation of long-term trends.
- They submit regular reports on the global state of their area of expertise, as well as their actions and initiatives.
Representation
The Commissions elect a representative and an alternate who represent the Commission in public affairs. This representative has a permanent guest seat in the cabinets of the relevant ministries in relation to their field of action.
Temporary Commissions
Temporary Commissions are established to prepare for a vote. Their functioning is inspired by Citizen's initiative reviews: a group of randomly selected citizens studies a specific subject and presents its findings in a report intended for other citizens.
Organization
Several elements are variable, at the discretion of the Representative Council:
- The size of the group (typically 20 to 30 people).
- The duration of the study (from two weeks to two months).
- The resources allocated to this Commission.
- The composition of the group:
- A simple draw can be made among volunteer citizens, or a sampling can be integrated to improve the group's representativeness, in connection with the question being studied.
- It is possible to integrate technical specialists into the group, with a limit of 50% of the total members. These specialists must also be drawn at random.
Within the limits defined by the Representative Council, the Temporary Commissions have all the necessary powers to carry out their study, such as soliciting external opinions or organizing a visit to a place related to the subject.
The result of their work is a report intended for citizens. This report takes the form of a one-page summary of the main arguments and the Commission's recommendation, as well as a more detailed supplementary dossier, including the documentary sources used to produce the analysis.
Representation
The commissions elect a representative and a substitute who represent the commission in public affairs.