September 8, 2025

lots to scale

scaling mini-publics out, up, across, deep, and in

We recently explored the tranquil, mature open democracy of New Camelot, an imagined land run by assemblies of randomly selected citizens. We now return to the real world, where mini-publics, though in their infancy, are on a roll. To date, mini-publics have had an almost unbroken string of small but meaningful successes.

Whether tackling food policy in Poland, fake news in Canada, corruption in Montenegro, genome editing in Australia, or AI in Germany, mini-publics have produced consistently impressive results. The participants take their work seriously. Participants listen to each other and form connections (and not parties). They grapple with the learning material. They ask difficult questions. They struggle with the possibilities and their consequences. They propose and weigh unconventional solutions. They reach conclusions supported by significant supermajorities; typically the bar for resolution is set at 70%!

And when they finish, participants express hope. Exhaustion, too, sometimes, but consistently participants describe pride in what they have accomplished together and a sense of surprise that politics can feel healthy.

The successes, heartwarming though they may be, can seem underwhelming when cast against the cystic froth of US national and international politics. They’re not nearly common enough to feel like the tidal wave of democracy we need to tackle the grand problems of our age – we have smatterings where we need ubiquity. Most of these mini-publics are advisory and have little to no formal power. Their resolutions take effect only if taken up by elected officeholders – who have, in fairness, tended to take their recommendations seriously. And they tend to be one-offs instead of institutions (though we’ll get to some hopeful news on that front in a second).

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So, yes, we need for open democracy to blossom swiftly. The inspiring folks at Democracy Next have framed the scaling challenge nicely. They suggest five dimensions of scaling open democratic practices:

• Scaling out: larger mini-publics
• Scaling up: mini-publics representing larger populations
• Scaling across: more mini-publics
• Scaling deep: more empowered mini-publics
• Scaling in: better mini-publics

(Their labels, my descriptions.)

Yes to all five! We need more skill at managing large mini-publics, more national and international mini-publics, more breadth of practice and application, more sway, and even wiser facilitation.

And, while several of these dimensions relate, none lands squarely in the area that most interests this newsletter: weaving mini-publics together into a fabric. When we have systems of mini-publics, how do they fit together? How do they support each other? How do they check and balance each other? How do they integrate? Or, to fit the Democracy Next framing, how do they scale together?

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If weaving mini-publics together sounds like wonky sci-fi, consider Ostbelgien (aka East Belgium), a German-speaking community of around 80,000 citizens.

In 2019, Ostbelgien’s parliament established the Permanent Citizen’s Dialogue, a simple two-level system of mini-publics. One standing mini-public, the Citizen Council (Bürgerrat), meets to select the issues most needing attention. They are then empowered to convene separate mini-publics called Citizen Assemblies (Bürgerversammlungen) that discuss those issues. They produce recommendations that the parliament is obligated to discuss.

As imaginable mini-public fabrics go, this is an extremely simple one. It’s mini-public felt, not mini-public silk. One permanent body sets the topics for temporary bodies, that’s it. But consider the concept proven; others began following the Ostbelgien model in short order. Two other regions of Belgium, Wallonia and Brussels, both introduced institutionalized citizen deliberation inspired by Ostbelgien.

And the trend jumped the border. In 2021 – just two years after Ostbelgien’s experiment began – France’s capital city created the Paris Standing Citizen Assembly. Unlike in Ostbelgien, the Paris Assembly divides into multiple councils rather than convening new ones, a bit like a parliamentary body splitting up into committees. Last year the standing assembly split into two groups to tackle homelessness and greening the city. The homelessness group met for 4 plenary sessions and 16 half-day workshops. They took on 3 site visits, and then met 3 more times to finalize the 20 measures that comprised their Citizens Bill.

You read that right, the citizens wrote the bill. Paris’s City Council (the elected one) took up the bill as written and voted it directly into law. One of the great world capitals is now implementing a law to address homelessness written by folks chosen by lot.

Paris took inspiration from Ostbelgien. Ostbelgien, in turn, took inspiration from Vermont. Or, at least, from a Vermonter. Terry Bouricius, a former member of the Vermont House of Representatives, wrote an essay in 2013 entitled Democracy Through Multi-Body Sortition: Athenian Lessons for the Modern Day. Taking his inspiration from Ancient Greece, he wrote about the possibility of designing systems composed of many mini-publics. He described, you could say, something of a New Camelot.

What should these mini-publics look like? Should they be large (more representative) or small (deeper deliberation)? Should they be mandatory (more representative) or optional (more enthusiastic deliberation)? Long- or short- term? Permanent or temporary? Paid or not?

Bouricius, in short, answers all of the above. The design depends on the role the mini-public plays in the system. If the role is to finalize complex legislation, the assembly probably needs especially rich deliberation and should thus be quite long-term, paid, not too large, etc. But it might also be valuable to have a separate body review and approve the legislation, and that body could be large, short-term, and mandatory.

The challenge isn’t to design the perfect mini-public, it’s to use strands of diverse mini-publics to weave beautiful tapestries. We’re just getting started.