ABSTRACT
Proponents of participatory democracy have argued that the best way to redress the past exclusion of citizens from policy decisions is to include them as widely as possible, with priority given to marginalized communities. Conversely, proponents of deliberative democracy have argued that the fairest way to include citizens in public decision-making is through 'mini-publics' groups of randomly selected citizens who are given a specific mandate and resources to carry it out. As Helene Landemore argues in her book Open Democracy, mini-publics should be understood as an alternative – and potentially superior – form of democratic representation, with citizens rotating in and out of temporary assemblies, representing others and being represented in turn. The authors encounter a range of ways of thinking about collective intelligence in the public sphere that go far beyond casting a vote on Election Day.
