RESOURCES – PUBLIC ACCESS DEMOCRACY

Books
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Webcast/Podcasts
Guides
Organizations

What if We Replaced Politicians with Randomly Selected People

In eight minutes, Brett Henning lays out the case for Democracy by Lot

Democracy R&D

The premier website for information about democracy by lot

Equality by Lot

A helpful blog about democracy by lot

Revisionist History

This podcast of Malcolm Gladwell's details the work of Adam Cronkright in Bolivia to organize student councils by lottery

How to Run a Civic Lottery

Designing fair selection mechanisms for deliberative public processes.

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.

Of By For

We’re a non-profit working to get beyond parties and politicians and put everyday people front and center.

Democracy R&D Resources

An extensive directory of resources from the Democracy R&D website

Jefferson Center

International leaders in civic participation, deliberation, and engagement, driven to design the future of democracy, primarily through citizens' juries.

The Sortition Foundation

The Sortition Foundation is a not-for-proft social enterprise dedicated to promoting fair, transparent, inclusive and effective deliberative assemblies. We want citizens’ assemblies and policy juries to have the highest level of legitimacy with the most accurate representative, random sample of people.

A Citizen Legislature

A modest proposal for the random selection of legislators. Free, downloadable book, written 1985

Against Elections

The original purpose of elections was to exclude the people from power by appointing an elite to govern over them.

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.

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?

Corruption is Legal in America

Does the government represent the people? The opinions of 90% of Americans have essentially no impact at all.

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.

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.

MASSLBP

We are Canada's home for democratic innovation and public strategy. Since 2007, MASS has led some of the country's most original and ambitious efforts to engage citizens in tackling tough policy choices while pioneering the use of Civic Lotteries and Citizens' Reference Panels on behalf of forward-thinking governments.

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.

Deliberative Democracy

Countries worldwide are experimenting with permanent citizen engagement in public decisionmaking. Could "ordinary citizens" become a new cornerstone of democracy?

Healthy Democracy

Working to elevate citizen voices and improve public discourse. In states. In communities. In schools.

Democracy Without Elections

Our organization promotes the use of deliberation and democratic lotteries (sortition) in citizens’ assemblies, organizations, student government, and all level of government from local to Congress.

Revitalizing Democracy

Special Webinar: Revitalizing Democracy: Sortition, Citizen Power, and Spaces of Freedom. Bard College

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.

Catching the Deliberative Wave

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions. A report on close to 300 representative deliberative practices

Participo

A new platform of digital exchange on questions about the future of democracy

Highlights from Catching the Deliberative Wave

Highlights from Catching the Deliberative Wave: Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions (downloadable PDF file)

Beyond Elections

Short, clear, powerful.

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.

New Democracy Foundation

When given the authority, time, and information, everyday people take the tough questions, side-step party lines, and deliver sensible answers.

Deliberative Democracy Consortium

DDC is an alliance of leading organizations and scholars working in the firld of public engagement, participation, and deliberation.

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 organised with a randomly selected group of citizens, operate.

Involve

We want to build a more vibrant democracy, with people at the heart of decision-making.

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.

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.

Ideas We Should Steal – Citizens’ Assemblies

Philadelphia Citizen: Citizens’ Assemblies are opening and changing minds

Learn About Citizens’ Assemblies

Citizens' Assemblies: the better way to do democracy

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.”

How to Run a Citizens’ Assembly

A handbook for local authorities based on the Innovation in Democracy Programme

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.

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.

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.

How to Restore Trust in Politics

The Economist weighs in on Citizens' Assemblies

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.

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.

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.

Why Have a Citizens’ Assembly?

A two-minute video by Extinction Rebellion, a youth-led climate group in Great Britain

Toronto Planning Review Panel

In 2015 the city of Toronto implemented a planning review panel with panelists chosen by democratic lottery.

irish-citizens-assembly website

All about the ongoing Irish Citizens' Assemblhy

A New Way to Self Govern

Experiments demonstrate a new way to self govern - the selection of representatives by lottery

How We Can Make Democracy Better

Fast Company piece about Of By For and the plan to replace politicians with randomly selected citizens. Scroll down for podcast

change-politics-

We'd have a better politics if it was less about elections

Change Politics Video

Osher Gunsberg explains citizens' assemblies from his bath.