Sortitive deliberation: conceptualising the mechanism and exploring its value under modern democracy

Thesis

The aim of this thesis is to conceptualise an emerging political mechanism and explore its potential value under modern democracy. The mechanism – referred to herein as sortitive deliberation – combines sortition (a means by which individuals are randomly selected for an assigned purpose) with democratic deliberation (a process through which participants engage in principled dialogue on matters of public concern) to provide new forums for political reflection. These forums are often identified as deliberative mini-publics in the literature and comprise models such as Citizens’ Assemblies, Citizens’ Juries, Citizen’s Initiative Reviews, and Deliberative Polls. The forms of political reflection they take can range from assessing the merits of ballot proposals and scrutinising elected officials to directly creating laws and policies. Sortitive deliberation is a unique mechanism because of its potential to produce well-considered recommendations that enhance democratic legitimacy and decision-making while simultaneously providing counters and solutions to some of the contemporary failings of traditional representative governance.

The thesis will begin by introducing the current theoretical framework and empirical landscape of traditional representative democracy, before setting out and analysing the aleatory and deliberative democratic foundations of sortitive deliberation. Taking note of recent attention from scholars, practitioners, and occasionally, national governments, the history and development of deliberative mini-publics will then be examined. The potential value of sortitive deliberation will then be explored through consideration of a range of intrinsicist and instrumentalist arguments in normative political theory. This analysis will focus primarily on the forms of representation embodied by sortitive deliberation and their impact on the political values of equality and freedom, as well as their contributions to epistemic and broader consequentialist outcomes. The thesis will conclude with some deliberative constitutionalist remarks on the institutional role of sortitive deliberation in modern democracy and recommendations for future research.

Authors: McKernan, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-am42r22vp
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: constitutional theory; deliberative constitutionalism; sortition; deliberative mini-publics; constitutional law; sortitive deliberation; deliberative democracy; normative political theory
• Subjects: Jurisprudence and Political Theory; Constitutional Law and Theory