An allotted evaluation panel in Belgium

Posted on October 10, 2026 by Yoram Gat

Bruxelles Today reports that the municipality of Auderghem in Belgium is setting up an allotted Citizen Evaluation Council (CEC) that is going to produce a yearly evaluation of the government of the municipality. This has the potential of being a transformative application of sortition – much more impactful than the customary single-issue bodies and the “grand plan” bodies. By evaluating the actual actions of the government as a whole, rather than being assigned limited roles by the elected, or making abstract and inevitably vague plans, the evaluation council can become a meaningful channel for democratic power challenging the oligarchical electoral power. Much of course depends on the details – authority, resources, media attention – but the direction is very promising, despite not having any binding decision making power. This could be a good way for estabilishing the representativity of allotted bodies and increasing their visibility and credibility, as an initial step toward a full sortition-based system. If the population perceives the evaluations produced as valid and useful, then the next step – allowing the CEC to fire and hire the officials they are evaluating in order to promote the same values and interests the CEC uses when producing its evaluation – seems not that far fetched.

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The municipality of Auderghem is launching a Citizen Evaluation Council (CEC) composed of 33 residents selected by lot from among the applicants. Its mission will be to independently evaluate the municipality’s actions on an annual basis, the municipality stated.

Three criteria for evaluating the municipality

Each year, the Council will review municipal actions based on three criteria: effectiveness—specifically, what was or was not achieved and why; the relevance of decisions regarding residents’ needs; and the coherence between various projects. The method draws on an OECD framework, adapted by the ULB Policy Lab to make it accessible to residents who are not public policy evaluation specialists.

“It is very easy for a municipality to claim it has done this or that, or that it is innovative or the best. But in a world where ‘fake news’ makes us question everything, that kind of rhetoric is no longer enough,” says Mayor Sophie de Vos. “We therefore decided to empower residents to evaluate what we do.”

Aldermen and municipal departments will be required to present the planned initiatives, what was actually accomplished, and the reasons for any delays to the members. The process will rely on the roadmap set out in the 2024–2030 General Policy Declaration, activity reports from municipal departments, and an annual resident satisfaction survey.

Work begins in March 2027

Members will first undergo three half-day training sessions covering the municipality’s powers and operations. They will then begin their work in March 2027 by evaluating actions taken during 2026.

Each annual cycle will conclude in June with a public presentation held on the same day as the “Residents’ Drinks” event. The findings will then be officially presented to the Municipal Council. The term of office will last two years and may be renewed until 2030. Participants will receive compensation for each working session, within the limits of the statutory cap for flat-rate allowances.

“The Citizens’ Evaluation Council does not replace the Municipal Council or the Municipal Executive, which continue to steer municipal action,” explains Sophie de Vos. “What we are adding is direct resident involvement to ensure our actions meet their needs and—where necessary—to make corrections.”

Starting in late 2029, the various evaluations will also be used to draft a memorandum of recommendations. This document must be finalized no later than March 31, 2030, and shared with the lists of candidates running in the municipal elections.

Filed under: Applications, Press, Sortition |

10 Responses

keithsutherland, on October 10, 2026 at 9:02 am said:

>: 33 residents selected by lot from among the applicants.

It would be interesting to know what the rationale behind this project is. There is no pretence at recruiting a representative sample, so is it claimed that evaluation is an a-political function? In classical Athens, holding officials to account was a deeply political function, that required large juries.

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deepdark103, on October 10, 2026 at 1:13 pm said:

I will never trust any system that claims to verify that a random sample is representative. How can you define “representative” except as what a sufficiently large random sample would be?

Beware people trying to hijack the idea of sortition for anti-sortition purposes.

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keithsutherland, on October 10, 2026 at 2:06 pm said:

I don’t get the impression there is a representative claim involved in this project as it’s a small sample of “applicants”. In which case the only difference between people who put themselves forward for election and allotment is that in the latter case the public doesn’t get to choose. So it’s a case of two oligarchies, one elected and the other allotted.

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keithsutherland, on October 10, 2026 at 2:11 pm said:

And it my village is anything to go by, in small municipalities it’s the same sort of people who stand for election to the council and volunteer for other roles (village hall/fete/church etc). Yet on forums like this the former category is composed of egomaniacal psychopaths, whereas the latter are upstanding citizens.

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tbouricius, on October 10, 2026 at 5:28 pm said:

The word “applicants” makes this not an example of sortition. It is possible that is a translation issue, though. A stratified sample from among a pool of people who were randomly recruited, and said they would be willing to serve is more common, and I have seen such pools described as “volunteers” before.

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Carl Lundgren, on October 10, 2026 at 6:14 pm said:

The city of Auderghem has 35,700 residents, of whom 28,500 may be eligible to vote in municipal elections. It is officially bi-lingual (French-Dutch) and one-third of its residents are not citizens of Belgium – but nevertheless allowed to vote in municipal elections.

Being forced to “apply” to be considered for the lottery is likely to cut down considerably on the number of volunteers and their representativeness. An alternative procedure would be to perform a lottery on all eligible residents, and then allow the selected individuals to opt in or out. It would be interesting to know how many residents know about and choose to apply — and whether these applicants are essentially related to the existing political establishment in Auderghem.

I would see the function of the Evaluation Council as less political – they are not being asked to evaluate the performance of officials, so much as the effectiveness and performance of government actions and services in general.

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keithsutherland, on October 11, 2026 at 8:58 am said:

Carl,

It the role of the evaluation council is to make an evaluation of the effectiveness and performance of government actions and services in general, surely this is the remit of existing auditing bodies? Why would randomly selected volunteers do a better job if there was no role for the beliefs and preferences of those performing the audit?

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Carl Lundgren, on October 12, 2026 at 9:11 pm said:

Keith, not sure what auditing bodies currently exist in Auderghem – so I can’t say whether any of this is redundant. I think it’s most likely that the town’s “elites” want advice for improvements without making it too personal or political. It’s also likely that friends of the politicians will be encouraged to apply – making this not very representative of the more common folk. Details matter, I don’t see enough here yet to get terribly excited about – but I can be proved wrong if there is more…

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swiftlycbc22ed240, on October 13, 2026 at 12:07 am said:

Heya Yoram,

I’d love to know more about your thoughts on how sortition can be institutionalised, and why some of the structures developed around the world so far haven’t been super effective. I’ve recently started a group to advocate for greater use of sortition in Canberra, Australia – actcitizensassembly.org. Would be great to chat sometime – info@actcitizensassembly.org.

Cheers,

Dennis

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Yoram Gat, on October 13, 2026 at 5:04 pm said:

Hi Dennis,

Thanks! I’d be happy to share my thoughts. I’ll contact you.

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