Citizens’ Assemblies and Mini-Publics

Abstract This chapter explains the notions of mini-publics and citizens’ assemblies and how political lotteries were used in history. It presents three main arguments that impart legitimacy to citizens’ assemblies as a part of the constituent power: descriptive representation, impartiality, and their deliberative and epistemic qualities. It also tackles two contentious issues: the way in which citizens’ assemblies relate to the wider public sphere and the constituent power and the different imaginaries of politics and the constituent power that motivate advocates of sortition. It sketches the role citizens’ assemblies could play when constituent power is extended to the transnational level and to non-humans. It concludes in arguing that constituent power in the twenty-first century needs to be conceived as a system much beyond the classical procedures (revolution/election of a constituent assembly/referendum, which validates the proposal). Citizens’ assemblies should form an important element in such constituent systems.