When mini-publics and maxi-publics coincide: Ireland\u27s national debate on abortion

Abstract

Ireland\u27s Citizens\u27 Assembly (CA) of 2016-18 was tasked with making recommendations on abortion. This paper shows that from the outset its members were in large part in favour of the liberalisation of abortion (though a fair proportion were undecided), that over the course of its deliberations the CA as a whole moved in a more liberal direction on the issue, but that its position was largely reflected in the subsequent referendum vote by the population as a whole