At Deliberativa we work mainly in deliberative processes activated by governments or parliaments, but the civic (or democratic) lottery and deliberation can be applied to almost all areas. In this sense, the energy consumption cooperative Som Energia has been a pioneer in the Iberian Peninsula with a deliberative process carried out among its members between 2023 and 2024, to define the future priorities of the organization. In the Basque Country, we are going to work in 2025 hand in hand with Arantzazulab and other organisations to think about how to introduce these tools in the Mondragon cooperative.
The new journal “The Journal of Sortition“, in its first issue of January 2025, proposes several articles mentioning the expanded use of sortition in various fields of action.
Oliver Dowlen (1) for example, mentions that the draw could be used in three configurations:
- Small groups of citizens in key positions who act as witnesses and controllers and are linked to broad decision-making bodies.
- Broader groups of citizens with deliberative and/or decision-making power.
- Positions generated by lottery from small groups of experts.
He adds that these different ways of using the lottery could be used for example in drafting or amending a constitution (as has already been the case in Ireland and Canada); in the judiciary (beyond the traditional popular jury); in the organization of elections (especially in new democracies); in representative political systems (deliberative mini-publics), the military (examples exist) and the police; in the control of public spending and to ensure independent public media.
Undoubtedly these proposals, and others mentioned in the magazine, may be the seeds of fruitful applications in the future.
(1) Oliver Dowlen, A Framework for the Consolidation and Defence of Citizens’ Democracy. The Journal of Sortition, 2025