What is Sortition
Sortition is the use of randomly selected citizen assemblies to advise legislators or make legislation. Around the world, citizen assemblies of randomly selected participants are meeting to discuss and decide upon important political controversies. This is not an abstract issue. In the past few years citizens assemblies have grown in popularity in what has been called a “deliberative wave.” Initiatives such as the Irish assembly on abortion, the French national climate assembly, and the model East Belgium assembly have served as crucial examples. Then, on October 14th, Paris announced the creation of a permanent citizens assembly of 100 Parisians, which will have the following powers:
- draft laws, which then go to the city council for debate and a vote
- request the drafting of scrutiny reports on an issue
- raise questions at city council meetings
- set the topics of the Paris participatory budget
- put at least one issue per year on their agenda themselves
Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory
The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory has been holding Citizen Assemblies in Belgrade on topics such as increasing traffic mobility. They recently published a study, “Participatory and Deliberative Democracy: Citizens’ Assembly and the Organization of Traffic Mobility in Belgrade”.