ABSTRACT
The deliberative model started out in life as a theory of legitimacy. By including everyone affected in the process leading to a decision, deliberation could prove capable of generating political outcomes that receive broad public support, even when there is strong disagreement on the aims and values a polity should promote. Whereas in the run-up to the 2010 elections hardly any references to democratic innovations had been made, the 2014 manifestos were much more likely to propose ideas about direct, participatory and deliberative democracy. The G1000 is an exceptional case for several reasons. First of all, the G1000 was a citizen-led initiative, in contrast to many of its foreign counterparts that were initiated by public institutions. Secondly, the G1000 was not simply a one-off deliberative mini-public, but a complex web of different deliberative sites that spanned the entire public sphere. The G1000 was rooted in a polity that is also of particular interest to deliberative systems literature.
