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Status: activeType: 🔬 researchCountry: Australia Website: www.canberra.edu.au/research/centres/cddgg
Status active
Type 🔬 research
Country Australia
Website www.canberra.edu.au/research/centres/cddgg
Contact delibdem@canberra.edu.au
+61 2 6201 5111
Concepts Citizens Assembly Sortition
Last activity 2026-06-29 dod
Website confirmed active. Hans Asenbaum remains director; weekly seminar series running, Summer School and Journal of Deliberative Democracy ongoing.

Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance (CDDGG)

The Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance (CDDGG) is a research centre within the University of Canberra's Faculty of Business, Government and Law. Founded in 2004 at the Australian National University, it relocated to the University of Canberra in 2014 and is one of the leading academic centres for deliberative democracy research globally.

Co-founders include John Dryzek (Distinguished Professor) and Simon Niemeyer. Current director is Hans Asenbaum (from 2026). Other core staff include Selen Ercan and Nicole Curato.

Notable outputs

  • Australian Citizens' Parliament (2008–2009) — Designed and delivered by the centre. 150 randomly selected citizens deliberated at Old Parliament House on the question "How can Australia's political system be strengthened to serve us better?" and produced 13 proposals presented to Parliament.
  • Journal of Deliberative Democracy — The flagship journal of the field; the centre is its institutional home, published by University of Westminster Press.
  • Deliberative Democracy Summer School — Annual international event at UC.

See also

History

  • 2004-01-01 Founded at the Australian National University by John Dryzek and Simon NiemeyerFounding of the organisation
    Sourcing: High
    The Centre was founded in 2004 at the Australian National University by John Dryzek and Simon Niemeyer.

    Correction: the previous single event here dated the founding to 2014 ("marking its 10th anniversary in 2024"), but the same source page states the Centre was actually founded in 2004 at ANU — 2014 was the relocation to the University of Canberra (see the following event). The "10th anniversary in 2024" framing conflated the two: it happens to also be the relocation's 10th anniversary, not the Centre's.

    ↗ View source
  • 2008-01-01 Designed and delivered the first Australian Citizens' Parliament at Old Parliament HouseLandmark deliberative-democracy citizens' assembly, jointly delivered with newDemocracy
    Sourcing: High
    In 2008, the Centre designed and delivered the first Australian Citizens’ Parliament at Old Parliament House, bringing together 150 citizens from across Australia to deliberate on the question: How can Australia’s political system be strengthened to serve us better?

    newdemocracy.md dates the same Citizens' Parliament to 2009 (when co-organiser newDemocracy Foundation's own source places the actual deliberation) — this page dates it to 2008 instead ("designed and delivered"), possibly the design/setup year vs. the deliberation year. Flagging the discrepancy rather than silently picking one; both entries are independently sourced from their own org's page.

    ↗ View source
  • 2014-01-01 Relocated to the University of CanberraRelocation to its long-term host university
    Sourcing: High
    It relocated to the University of Canberra in 2014, where it has since been consolidated and expanded through the collective efforts of its members
    ↗ View source