ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to grasp more finely the participants and non-participants in G1000 and their reasons and motivations. Despite the careful process of random selection, it knew that there was possibly of a stronger dropout among the groups who traditionally feel less at ease with politics, or with social and political participation. As in common deliberative practice it experienced a dropout rate of about 30% among the people who confirmed their participation before the event, with the final number of participants amounting to 704. Fifty-two per cent of the participants were female, 48% were male, which is a perfect reflection of the gender composition of the population and which was rather unexpected, since women are found to be more likely to drop out of such deliberative events. The chapter shows that the recruitment yielded a mini-public made up of participants largely reflecting the diversity of Belgian society.
