Deliberative Assembly

A deliberative assembly is an organization comprising members who use parliamentary procedure to make decisions. 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 describes certain characteristics of a deliberative assembly, such as each member having an equal vote and the fact that the group meets to determine actions to be taken in the name of the entire group. A deliberative assembly may have different classes of members. Common classes include regular members, ex-officio members, and honorary members.