The context is party-political and civic establishments—strongly influenced by special interests—monopolising knowledge, information, and power. Thereby limiting government transparency and accountability. This democratic deficit is visible even where legal rights to Freedom of Information (FOI), albeit limited in scope and application, are present. The result is a compromised political infrastructure where the odds are stacked against the citizenry to challenge and change the status quo. Information is a key resource for such challenges and movements for change.

My aim in this essay is to advocate expanding the political realm to include many more citizens with improved IL. Consequently, my objective is to challenge the conventional scenario of elections with short campaign timescales, and information flows dominated by media, pollsters, and career politicians. That process of controlled democracy edits the information needed for reasoned choices into a condensed election period thereby inhibiting wider civic participation and deliberation. This problematic situation calls for reform. So, what remedies are available to citizens?

Deliberative Democracy and Citizen’s Assemblies

Deliberative democracy entails participation in well informed, thoughtful, and respectful debate to agree political decisions. It aligns with representative, election-based models of democracy but benefits from public formats designed to maximise participation. Citizen’s Assemblies are an established format for participation. They are small, demographically representative groups, sometimes called people’s panels or juries, convened to explore issues of substance and controversy. They are constituted by a process of regular meetings, with input from experts, leading to an informed decision, which can be commended to government for action.

The Irish Citizen’s Assembly (2016-18) which successfully dealt with access to abortion rights is a helpful example. Recent failures by UK parliaments (Westminster and Edinburgh 2026) to resolve the issue of Assisted Dying have led to calls for Citizen’s Assemblies to progress matters.

International Example: Citizen’s Climate Assemblies

The climate assembly mode follows the format described above and has been used in different countries to influence government policy on climate change. For example, Scotland’s Climate Assembly (2021) focussed on the issues around fair transition to net-zero. For more in depth accounts see KNOCA (Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies). KNOCA is particularly valuable as a model of iterative learning from experience through research and international collaboration.

National Example: Scottish Independence

Achieving Scottish independence would involve change in the constitutional arrangements of the UK and entails proposals to reform the nation’s political economy and inspire cultural regeneration. The use of Citizen’s assemblies in this context would leverage Scottish Government policy prizing citizen’s direct involvement in democracy through discussion and debate. Assemblies could help surmount the polarisation of partisan politics, often driven by dis/misinformation.

Assemblies are not without difficulties. For example, governments can ignore recommendations and given their relative novelty there is limited public awareness of the opportunities. This is reinforced by the much deeper experience of long-established voter-based election frameworks. Arguably a more informed and engaged citizenry would mitigate these difficulties.

Where Can IL Fit?

As an essential discipline of the information age, IL is relevant to education, workplaces, everyday life, and civic action in a changing world. It is constituted by the knowledge, skills, experiences, and values that people draw on to traverse their information environments. Developing a person’s IL can maximise effective citizenship by, for example, sourcing and critiquing information to assist reasoned and ethical discussion of political issues.

I advocate developing IL as a direct component of the democratic engagements entailed in the political frameworks of nations. Particularly where more citizen participation is encouraged. Civic engagement can come gradually through experience of activism, campaigns, and elections, supported by educational programmes. However, I suggest Citizen’s Assemblies can accelerate and expand engagement. This progression can be supported by IL developed through integrated service provision aligned with educational programmes and augmented by research.

Conclusion: Prospects for Research and Professional Input.

To summarise, I suggest that citizen’s assemblies are forms of civic participation, which can be enhanced by insights from IL, thereby countering dis/misinformation, promoting reasoned outcomes, and contributing to healthier democracy.

Assemblies offer potential for case studies to critically analyse the nature and status of informed citizenship, and the opportunities for supportive IL initiatives. The discipline should therefore focus on researching and helping shape participative practices. Focal topics could include.

• What would be the democratic gains of a more information literate citizenry?
• How can IL be integrated with citizen’s assemblies and shown to enhance practice?
• How does IL practice relate to the exercise of FOI rights?

Researchers should engage with other disciplines drawing on the strength of IL as a transdisciplinary discipline. IL’s expertise in qualitative research methods would offer a highly credible mode of inquiry. Also, I suggest researchers would benefit from direct engagement with KNOCA given that organisations commitment to improving practice from experience.