Citizen assemblies

"Citizens’ Assemblies belong in the category of deliberative mini-public, defined by political scientist Robert Dahl as “an assembly of citizens, demographically representative of the larger population, brought together to learn and deliberate on a topic in order to inform public opinion and decision-making.” While the idea for political decisions to be made through small group deliberations can be traced back to ancient Athenian popular assemblies, mini-publics in their current form have only been in use since the second-half of the 20th Century. The first use of the Citizens’ Assembly model was in 2004 when a group of 161 people were randomly selected to deliberate on an alternative voting system in British Columbia. While the Citizens’ Assembly model, like other mini-publics, embodies the principles of deliberative democracy, it can also be seen as sitting at the interface of deliberative and direct democracy since it is often followed by a referendum or popular vote." [Participedia: Citizens Assemblies entry]