We champion three democratic practices – sortition (choosing decision makers by lottery), deliberation (structured collective reasoning), and rotation (taking turns to represent and be represented) – that together make democracy more legitimate, more trustworthy, and more effective.
These ideas are the foundations of self-governance, now being rediscovered and put to work in citizens' assemblies around the world, enabling people to be with complexity, exercise collective intelligence, and find common ground.
We help leaders across government, culture, and education learn, establish, and permanently embed them. Read our 2024 Impact Report. Find out more about how to collaborate with us.
People are losing faith in politics. There is a ‘triple trust’ dilemma: people’s trust in institutions, institutions’ trust in people, and people’s trust in one another are alarmingly low. Important decisions get stuck or ignored. Meanwhile, many are drawn to authoritarian alternatives.
We believe people are right to be frustrated. Our current democratic institutions are failing to give people real agency over the decisions that shape their lives. In its true meaning, democracy is about more than elections. Rather than simply defending the status quo, we need to shift power to citizens through new democratic processes that actually work.
Moreover, for the cost of one day of US election spending, we could fund hundreds of citizens' assemblies worldwide – it’s time to rebalance.
Sortition and deliberation offer a better way forward. When people are randomly selected and given time, information, and structured conversation to work through complex problems together, remarkable things happen:
Our hypothesis is that if people have greater agency in decision making, the ripple effects contribute to a thriving, resilient society of active citizens, where people have stronger trust in one another, a meaningful sense of belonging, and are less polarised. Sortition-based deliberations, like citizens’ assemblies, lead to more legitimate and informed decisions, policies, and resource allocations.
Despite approximately 1,000 examples worldwide – a genuine deliberative wave – sortition and deliberation remain little-known as pragmatic alternatives for democratic renewal. Whilst many people get excited when they learn about these methods, most don't know where to start if they want to use them.
The real transformation requires moving beyond one-off initiatives. As David Van Reybrouck said: "One-off assemblies are like one healthy meal. Better than nothing, but it won't give you a healthy lifestyle. To rebuild trust in democracy, we need something lasting."
Only a handful of deliberative bodies using sortition have been institutionalised as permanent features of decision-making, genuinely shifting power. One citizens' assembly with one group of people might lead to better decisions for those involved, but it won't transform democracy and power structures in a meaningful way.
Imagine political headlines aren’t filled with campaigning soundbites, stories about corrupt political financing, or it taking months and months to form government coalitions. Imagine if what mattered in politics was citizens - people with no political career ambitions - getting together to do the hard work of figuring out how to collectively solve the problems facing their families, neighbourhoods, schools, cities, regions, and countries.
Entire places buzzing with groups of citizens from all walks of life – activated and transformed after their lucky lottery selections – deliberating together on different government decisions.
Deliberation instead of debating clubs in schools. Student councils chosen by sortition rather than popularity contests, with power rotating, and young people sharing power from an early age.
Professors, staff, and students coming together to make decisions affecting the future of universities. About use of AI, environmental policies, diversity and inclusion, and other values-driven, political decisions that affect them all.
Local residents working with museum directors, staff, and curators to make culture something for everybody. Making people feel part of the places they live. Contributing as citizens.
In places all over the world, people flexing their civic muscles. Feeling heard. Empowered. Their agency awakened. Three-way trust rebuilt. Society’s democratic resilience stronger than ever.
Pockets of this vision are already a reality in some places.
For this vision to become reality more widely, we need more people to know: what these democratic methods are; how effective they can be; how to implement them; and how to make them permanent features of institutional decision making, not just one-off initiatives.
Our values inform how we approach our work – with rigour, curiosity, in collaboration with others, and with an ambition to be visionary. We don’t just tinker at the margins of the status quo. We seed the change we want to see.
We work strategically and in collaboration with others to support and grow the global deliberative democracy movement through three interconnected approaches:
We engage in creative storytelling and advocacy that inspires people to learn about and champion another democratic future, powered by real stories from around the world.
We create the tools, guides, and resources needed to help people and organisations implement deliberative processes using sortition, whilst experimenting with and researching innovations that improve quality, enhance legitimacy, and accelerate their spread.
We are a scaling catalyst for sustainable, democratic systems change. This means that we advise ambitious leaders across multiple sectors – from cities to national governments, cultural and financial organisations, to cooperatives and educational institutions – to establish deliberative processes using sortition as new institutions that lead to systemic change and shift power.