- All
- Website
- U.S. Group
- Book
- Video
- Podcast
- International Group
- Article
Sortition Foundation
Let’s do democracy differently Let's do democracy better
Website, International Group
What if We Replaced Politicians with Randomly Selected People
In eight minutes, Brett Hennig lays out the case for Democracy by Lot
Video
Democracy R&D
The premier website for information about democracy by lot
Website, International Group
Democracy R&D
The premier website for information about democracy by lot
Website
Revisionist History
This podcast of Malcolm Gladwell's details the work of Adam Cronkright in Bolivia to organize student councils by lottery.
Podcast
Democracy When the People are Thinking
What would democracy be like if the people were really thinking in depth about the policies they must live with? If they really 'deliberated' with good information about their political choices?
Book
The End of Politicians
Do you believe holding elections every couple of years means you live in a democracy? Short, powerfully argued and carefully researched, Hennig shows how elections have for a long time been known to serve the interests of the powerful - and how ordinary citizens can regain control of their government.
Book
Equality by Lot
The blog fr people interested in the use of randomness (lottery) in human affairs.
Website, International Group
Of By For
A non-profit working to get beyond parties and politicians and put everyday people front and center.
Website, U.S. Group
How to Run a Civic Lottery
Designing fair selection mechanisms for deliberative public processes.
A Citizen Legislature
A modest proposal for the random selection of legislators. Free, downloadable book, written 1985
Book, Article
Center for New Democratic Processes
International leaders in civic participation, deliberation, and engagement, driven to design the future of democracy, primarily through citizens' juries.
Website, U.S. Group
Against Elections
A book by David Van Reybrouck arguing in favor of sortition. The original purpose of elections was to exclude the people from power by appointing an elite to govern over them.
Book
How Random Selection Shaped Democracy
Few people know that randomness was a key political technology throughout the history of democracy. In different times, thinkers and social reformers saw sortition as a way to avoid concentration of power and corruption by special interests.
Article
What Did Democracy Mean in Athens?
While we might consider elections to be the cornerstone of democracy, the Athenians who coined the term actually employed a lottery system to choose most of their politicians.
Video
Corruption is Legal in America
Does the government represent the people? The opinions of 90% of Americans have essentially no impact at all.
Video
A New Wave of Deliberative Democracy
Countries worldwide are experimenting with permanent citizen engagement in public decisionmaking. Could "ordinary citizens" become a new cornerstone of democracy?
Article
Citizens assembly: towards a politics of ‘considered judgement’
Experts in deliberative democracy have been working across the world for around twenty years. Now, all of a sudden, their expertise is in high demand. Interview.
Article
Sorted
By examining use of civic lotteries through history – a tradition that remains at the core of our judicial system – this pamphlet explains how sortition can lower the barrier to political participation and extend a meaningful, new franchise to cit- izens wishing to serve their communities.
Article
Participo
A new platform of digital exchange on questions about the future of democracy
Catching the Deliberative Wave
Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions. A report on close to 300 representative deliberative practices
Book, Article
Revitalizing Democracy
Special Webinar: Revitalizing Democracy: Sortition, Citizen Power, and Spaces of Freedom. Bard College
U.S. Group, Video
Deliberative Democracy Consortium
DDC is an alliance of leading organizations and scholars working in the firld of public engagement, participation, and deliberation.
Website, U.S. Group
Highlights from Catching the Deliberative Wave
Highlights from Catching the Deliberative Wave: Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions (downloadable PDF file)
Article
Can an Algorithm Help Solve Political Paralysis
“If you believe an ideal democracy involves informed deliberation among a representative group of people, the current electoral system fails on both counts,” says Hennig, who has a Ph.D. in astrophysics. He believes something called “citizens’ assemblies” offer a better way to elicit policies in line with people’s real interests—with a little help from an algorithm.
Article
Healthy Democracy
Working to elevate citizen voices and improve public discourse. In states. In communities. In schools.
U.S. Group
Beyond Elections
Short, clear, powerful.
Video
The Case for Sortition
As 2020 continues, it has become increasingly easy to believe that the institutions of American democracy are breaking down. How, then, do we save American democracy? Sortition.
Article
Ideas We Should Steal – Citizens’ Assemblies
Philadelphia Citizen: Citizens’ Assemblies are opening and changing minds
Article
Real Democracy Now
Real Democracy Now! a podcast answers the question: can we do democracy differently? If you're dissatisfied with the current state of democracy but not sure how it could be improved this is the podcast for you.
Podcast
Center for Climate Assemblies
To protect the climate, not only are technical solutions needed but also an efficient democracy to implement these solutions. What we need is a form of democracy that supports thinking in categories of common good, long-term planning and that allows making brave and thoroughly considered decisions. This is the way in which citizens’ assemblies organized with a randomly selected group of citizens, operate.
International Group
New Democracy Foundation
When given the authority, time, and information, everyday people take the tough questions, side-step party lines, and deliver sensible answers.
International Group
Involve
We want to build a more vibrant democracy, with people at the heart of decision-making.
International Group
Facilitating Public Deliberations
In this series, we will be talking with practitioners, advocates and academics about the history of public deliberations and the various approaches to facilitating them.
Podcast
How to Run a Citizens’ Assembly
A handbook for local authorities based on the Innovation in Democracy Programme
Article
New Democracy Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies
Each chapter has a specific intended audience. While we hope everyone has the time and interest to read cover to cover, everyone should start with the introduction followed by their intended section.
Article
How to Restore Trust in Politics
The Economist weighs in on Citizens' Assemblies
Video
The Rivendell Model for Citizens’ Assemblies
The Rivendell Model is a set of rules and procedures for citizens’ assemblies. Despite being designed for the town of elves at the foothills of the Misty Mountains, it can serve as a model for any city or country around the world.
Book, Article
Learn About Citizens’ Assemblies
Citizens' Assemblies: the better way to do democracy
Article
Extinction Rebellion Guide to Citizens’ Assemblies
“A citizens’ assembly provides us, the people, with a way to request radical change. Such a request gives government legitimacy to act and allows for cross-party support. To carry on failing to act is no longer an option. It’s time for a citizens’ assembly.”
Article
The Democracy Collaborative
The mission of The Democracy Collaborative is to help catalyze a moral and political transformation of the US political economy into a next system that is inclusive, just, and ecologically sustainable—in contrast to today’s amoral economy of financial extraction.
Website, U.S. Group
The Irish Citizens Assembly
Ireland's efforts to break a political deadlock over its de facto ban on abortion inspired a bold response - the creation of a Citizens' Assembly to tackle on the issue.
Video
Why Have a Citizens’ Assembly?
A two-minute video by Extinction Rebellion, a youth-led climate group in Great Britain
Video
Toronto Planning Review Panel
In 2015 the city of Toronto implemented a planning review panel with panelists chosen by democratic lottery.
Voters Not Politicians
Voters Not Politicians is a pro-democracy organization and we've demonstrated our ability to enact real pro-democracy change. In 2017, we launched an anti-gerrymandering campaign to create a fair, impartial, and transparent redistricting process in Michigan. On November 6, 2018, Proposal 2 passed with 61% of the vote and created an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
U.S. Group
A Radical Proposal for True Democracy
One thing I want to do on this show is give space to truly radical ideas, to expand the boundaries of our political and moral imaginations. And Hélène Landemore, a political scientist at Yale, has one of those ideas. She calls it “open democracy,” and the premise is simple: What we call democracy is not very democratic.
Podcast
Sortition Resource Guide for Educators
This resource guide will assist educators in the development of comprehensive classroom curriculumtoexplore concepts related to a student’s readinessfor active, engaged citizenship
Article
Public Access Democracy
We aim to transform political decision making in towns, cities, counties, states, and nations--by putting political power into deliberative citizen assemblies chosen by democratic lottery.
Website, U.S. Group
A Movement That’s Quietly Reshaping Democracy For The Better
Citizens’ assemblies can help us better address societal challenges, overcome polarization and strengthen trust.
Website
Belgium’s Democraic Experiment
Europe’s smallest federal entity is setting a big precedent.
Website
In Petaluma, the Future of Democracy and the Fate of the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest Are Intertwined
What Happened When a Sonoma City Convened Citizens to Figure Out What to Do With Its Fairgrounds
Website
Why Hybrid Bicameralism is Not Right for Sortition
In this paper I examine structural problems with simply incorporating sortition into a traditional bicameral system.
Article
Democracy Through Multi-Body Sortition: Athenian Lessons for the Modern Day
Mature Classical Athenian democracy is presented as a representative system, rather than the commonly described form of “direct democracy.”
Article
Why Hybrid Bicameralism is Not Right for Sortition
In this paper I examine structural problems with simply incorporating sortition into a traditional bicameral system.
Article
An Idealized Design for Government. Part 2: Executive Branch Accountability
In this paper, the authors continue to build on their proposed model for incorporating randomly selected citizens into the decision-making processes of government.
Article
A Better Co-Op Democracy Without Elections?
Terry Bouricius, writing for Co-op Water Cooler questions the prevalence of elections in democratic worker ownership.
Article
The Trouble With Elections.
Everything We Thought We Knew About Democracy is Wrong.
Article