2019 review – sortition-related events

Posted on December 14, 2019 by Yoram Gat

As I have done at every end-of-year of the last 9, I am offering my summary of notable sortition-related events that occurred over the last year.

As polls indicate that people continue to believe that governments do not represent them, the idea of the single-issue citizens’ assembly made strides in various European countries in 2019. In France, the Citizens’ Climate Convention is taking place, where 150 allotted people are tasked with selecting ways to address the climate crisis. This body is relatively high profile and received attention by various writers. A similar body is being demanded in the UK by the Extinction Rebellion movement.

Scotland had a citizens’ assembly for “shaping Scotland’s future”.

Participations journal devoted a special issue to sortition. 24 papers dealt with various aspects of the topic. The book Legislature by Lot, with the papers from a workshop by the same name was also published.

A citizens’ assembly on Brexit was widely discussed in the UK.

A permanent allotted body was instituted by the German speaking community in Belgium and by City Hall in Madrid.

The increasing use of allotted citizen bodies resulted in increasing scrutiny of the ways in which they are constituted and run, as well as their institutional role.

Filed under: Academia, Applications, Books, Press, Proposals, Sortition |

« »

5 Responses

  1. A.R.Teleb, on December 15, 2019 at 4:42 pm said:

    FYI, there are only 150 at France’s Climate Assembly.
    Re Belgium, it looks like Brussels is going to follow the model of East Belgium: https://www.lecho.be/economie-politique/belgique/bruxelles/les-citoyens-entrent-au-parlement-bruxellois/10188020.html

    There is an important event in Germany not mentioned and that suggests Germany will have some kind of sortition-based participatory mechanism within a couple of years: https://www.nexusinstitut.de/en/citizens-assembly-on-democratic-reform-in-germany/
    The picture taken from a drone is alone worth a look!

    Also, the new President of the EU Commission, has announced a lot-based EU Citizens Assembly to come: https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/our-projects/democracy-and-participation-in-europe/project-news/european-citizens-and-the-conference-on-the-future-of-europe/

    The State of Michigan will begin using a redistricting commission that will includes 13 Randomly Selected Citizens: https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/10/24/state-open-online-applications-redistricting-commission/4079305002/

    Last but not least, Fair Vote Canada wrote an open letter to the PM and is organizing for a Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform: https://www.fairvote.ca/citizens-assemblies-a-more-meaningful-way-to-hear-from-citizens/

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Yoram Gat, on December 15, 2019 at 6:46 pm said:

    Thanks, Ahmed. Fixed the number of members in the Climate Convention.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Call for 2020 review input | Equality by lot, on December 12, 2020 at 7:42 am said:

    […] previous years’ summaries see: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, […]

    Like

  4. Call for 2021 review input | Equality by lot, on December 10, 2021 at 9:57 am said:

    […] previous years’ summaries see: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, […]

    Like

  5. Call for 2022 review input | Equality by lot, on December 17, 2022 at 12:29 pm said:

    […] previous years’ summaries see: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, […]

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: