Deliberative assembly

A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure. Merriam-Webster's definition excludes legislatures. In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly", and the expression became the basic term for a body of persons meeting to discuss and determine common action. Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised by Henry Martyn Robert describes the following characteristics of a deliberative assembly: A group of people meets to discuss and make decisions on behalf of the entire membership. They meet in a single room or area, or under equivalent conditions of simultaneous oral communication. Each member is free to act according to their own judgement. Each member has an equal vote. The members at the meeting act for the entire group, even if there are members absent. A member's dissent on a particular issue constitutes neither a withdrawal from the group, nor a termination of membership. Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised identifies several types of deliberative assemblies. Mass meeting A mass meeting, which is an unorganized group meeting open to all individuals in a sector of the population who are interested in deliberating about a subject proposed by the meeting's sponsors. Examples include meetings to discuss common political concerns or community interests, or meetings to form a new society. Voluntary association A local assembly of an organized society, which is a membership meeting of a local chapter or branch of a membership organization. Examples include local chapter meetings of organizations like the Sierra Club. Convention (meeting) A convention, which is a meeting of delegates who represent constituent units of a population. Conventions are not permanently established bodies, and delegates are normally elected for only one term. A convention may be held by an organized society, where each local assembly is represented by a delegate. Legislature A legislative body, which is a legally established public lawmaking body.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (10)

Motion (parliamentary procedure)

In certain countries, a motion in parliamentary procedure is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. Such motions, and the form they take are specified by the deliberate assembly and/or a pre-agreed volume detailing parliamentary procedure, such as Robert's Rules of Order; The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure; or Lord Citrine's The ABC of Chairmanship. Motions are used in conducting business in almost all legislative bodies worldwide, and are used in meetings of many church vestries, corporate boards, and fraternal organizations.

Parliamentary procedure

Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or the will of the majority of the assembly upon these questions. Self-governing organizations follow parliamentary procedure to debate and reach group decisions, usually by vote, with the least possible friction.

Deliberative assembly