| Abstract |
Among democratic innovations, we find calls for more direct democracy (i.e., more referendums) as well as calls for more deliberative democracy (via randomly selected mini-publics). Often, proponents of deliberative democracy have strong reservations toward direct democracy, and vice versa. Yet, in my view, the instruments of both models should not be seen in opposition: they can reinforce each other and offer a promising way to address the alleged crisis of (representative) democracy. I first outline a conceptual roadmap that explores the connection between mini-publics and referendums and provide an overview of the various stages in the process leading up to a popular vote at which deliberative mini-publics could be meaningfully deployed. I then examine in greater depth one possible use—namely the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR), also known as the “Oregon model” or “Demoscan” (in the Swiss context)—by presenting selected empirical findings from CIR pilots conducted in Switzerland. |