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Nu is het aan ons; oproep tot echte democratie | Bol.com
auteur: Eva Rovers, 22 april 2022 (186 blz, €15,00)
'In dit vlammende betoog laat Eva Rovers zien dat burgers cruciaal zijn voor het oplossen van de grootste uitdagingen van deze tijd.'

Tegen verkiezingen | Libris | Bol.com | Boekwinkeltjes.nl
Against Elections | Amazon.com | German, French, and other languages
auteur: David Van Reybrouck, 2013 (153 blz, €12,50)
De Vlaamse schrijver Van Reybrouck analyseert de crisis van het verkiezingsstelsel, legt uit waarom het loten van burgers een beter alternatief kan zijn, beschrijft de geschiedenis van loting vanaf het oude Athene en doet uit de doeken dat het begrip democratie tot een paar eeuwen terug niet verwees naar verkiezingen maar naar loting en dat verkiezingen na de achttiende eeuwse revoluties juist werden ingevoerd om democratie tegen te houden.

De Black Box Democratie; Een nieuw politiek systeem voor Nederland | Bol.com
auteur: Dilara Bilgiç, 2020 (112 blz, €21,50)
'De Black Box Democratie is hierdoor een zelflerend politiek systeem; een systeem waarin politici geen winnaars of verliezers meer zijn, waarin burgers directe inspraak hebben, waarin wetenschap een plek heeft en tegengestelde opvattingen worden geïntegreerd.'
Zie ook: Dutch newspaper reviews book about sortition written by teenager

Kiezen voor democratie | Bol.com | Amazon.com.be
auteur: Marcia Luyten, 28 november 2024 (96 blz, €15,00)
'Verkiezingen zijn nooit ontworpen voor sociale media. Ze zijn niet berekend op nepnieuws, niet op AI-beelden, niet op manipulerende algoritmes, niet op techmiljardairs met te veel macht. Als gevolg dolen we in een politiek Wonderland, waar burgers zichzelf en elkaar in absurditeit en complotten verliezen. In de snel polariserende samenleving werken verkiezingen als een centrifuge: alles zwiept naar de uitersten. (...) In Kiezen voor democratie laat Marcia Luyten zien hoe we de weg naar de basis van onze democratie kunnen terugvinden.'
Zie ook: ‘De democratie speelt zich niet buiten ons af’, Binnenlands Bestuur, 28 november 2024

Tegen technocratische tendensen. Voor vrijheid en democratie. | pdf
auteur: Dirk-Jan van Vliet, Mr. Hans van Mierlo Stichting, 2023 (52 blz, €9,95)
'In dit essay zet auteur Dirk-Jan van Vliet uiteen hoe hedendaagse technocratische tendensen samenhangen met ons begrip van vrijheid als ‘met rust gelaten worden’. Het is dan ook door een ander vrijheidsbegrip te omarmen dat we deze tendensen tegen kunnen gaan, namelijk het ‘democratisch vrijheidsbegrip’ dat voortkomt uit de oude Griekse stadstaat Athene. Uit dit vrijheidsbegrip volgt het inzicht dat het hoog tijd is om het aantal democratische momenten in het leven van mensen te vergroten. Daarom sluit het essay af met drie radicale voorstellen om publieke instituties democratischer te maken: het wetenschapsburgerberaad, het technologieburgerberaad en het zorgburgerberaad.'

The Keys to Democracy: Sortition as a New Model for Citizen Power | Bol.com | Libris
auteur: Maurice Pope, 7 maart 2023 (250 blz,  €31,99 à €34,95)
Boek over loting dat al in de jaren 80 geschreven werd door de inmiddels overleden classicus Maurice Pope, vader van Hugh Pope. Uitgeverijen wilden het toen niet uitgeven. Het manuscript werd onverwacht teruggevonden in zijn nalatenschap. 'Back in the 1980s, few others proposed that randomly selected citizens could, after proper information and deliberation, reach better decisions than elected politicians. This open field is perhaps one reason for the book’s unique and accessible combination of the history, mathematics, philosophy and future of sortition. My dad’s ideal – in which random selection could be the decision-making heart of all branches of government – also makes him more radical than most other thinkers writing today.'
Zie ook het artikel Power to the People, waarin Nick Coccoma dit boek bespreekt, de recensie van classicus James Kierstead, de podcast Using Sortition to Solve "Wicked Problems" with Hugh Pope, de lovende commentaren van een aantal vooraanstaande voorstanders van loting en “Enjoyable”, “idiosyncratic” & “broadly right” op de sites van Hugh Pope en de recensie van het boek op Equalitybylot.com door Yoram Gat. In deze recensie wordt ook aangegeven dat het boek van Pope het derde boek ooit geschreven is waarin gepleit wordt voor loting als belangrijk onderdeel van bestuur in de huidige tijd. De twee eerdere boeken, A Citizen Legislature (Callenbach en Phillips) en Is Democracy Possible? (Burnheim), kwamen beide uit in 1985, maar Pope had van beide boeken klaarblijkelijk geen weet.  

 

The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present | Bol.com | Amazon.nl
auteur: Yves Sintomer, 16 februari 2023 (341 blz)
'the single best book on democracy in at least three decades. A work of synthesis, it compresses between its covers all scholarship on the subject in recent years, moving effortlessly between history, theory, and praxis. In sweeping fashion, it stretches back two and a half millennia and brings you right to our present moment. And it does so with clarity of thought and vivacity of style. If you’re searching for one volume to orient you to the terms of debate within the study of democracy and government, look no further.'  (Nick Coccoma, 12 april 2023)
'explores why sortition is returning, how it is coupled with deliberation, and why randomly selected 'minipublics' and citizens' assemblies are flourishing. Relying on a growing international and interdisciplinary literature, Sintomer provides the first systematic and theoretical reconstruction of the government of chance from Athens to the present. At what conditions can it be rational? What lessons can be drawn from history? The Government of Chance therefore clarifies the democratic imaginaries at stake: deliberative, antipolitical, and radical, making a plaidoyer for the latter.'

The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy | Bol.com
auteur: Brett Hennig, 28 februari 2017 (223 blz)
'combines insights from the history of democracy with a critical understanding of the information revolution to explain how we can fix democracy by eliminating politicians and replacing them with a representative network of everyday citizens.'

Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy? | Libris | Bol.com | Amazon.com
auteur: James Fishkin, 3 juli 2025 (192 blz, US$25.00; €28,95)
'Based on decades of applying and perfecting methods of deliberative democracy in countries around the world, Fishkin argues that deliberative democracy can have surprisingly positive effects (...). Fishkin’s method of Deliberative Polling has been applied 150 times in countries around the world. In this book, Fishkin synthesizes the results and shows how they can be applied to help resolve many of democracy’s seemingly intractable challenges. Deliberative democracy can be applied to major national and local decisions, it can spread in the schools, it can be used by corporations, it can make for more meaningful ballot propositions, it can help reform the primary system, it can scale with technology. Most importantly, it can help reform electoral democracy, help preserve the guardrails that protect the electoral process, and provide key policy inputs on almost every contested issue from climate change to the rights of minorities. Fishkin ends by laying out a vision for how to combine elections with deliberation and build a more deliberative society—one that cures our extreme partisanship and leads to substantive dialogues that foster mutual respect and more engaged voters.'

(S)election: Sortition, the democratic alternative | Amazon.nl
auteur: Terry Bouricius, 2 februari 2017 (31 blz, €0,99)
'the source of democratic dysfunction is more deeply rooted than most people imagine. It's not just the corruption of money, nor gerrymandering, nor low voter turnout, nor lack of civility, nor winner-take all plurality election laws. We assume that elections are the only legitimate means of forming a representative popular government, and that elections fundamentally define democracy. Reforms may nibble around the edges, but the fundamental dysfunction of modern democracy is inherent in elections themselves, no matter how they are reformed. There is another way. Few Americans are aware of the global resurgence of an ancient tool of democracy called sortition — the use of random selection or scientific sampling to form genuinely representative deliberative bodies that are sometimes referred to as "mini-publics.". People can govern themselves better, with a representative government, without this exclusive reliance on elections. I will describe some of the inevitable failings of our competitive electoral democracy and present the democratic alternative of sortition. Juries are the prime example today.'
Zie ook dit interview met de auteur en zelf voormalig politicus:
Terry Bouricius on democracy beyond elections 

Sortition: Reviving Democracy Through Citizen Assemblies: Power by Lottery: Reimagining Democracy for a New Era | Amazon.nl | Waterstones.com
auteur: Robert Walker, 15 december 2024 (64 blz)
'At a time when traditional electoral politics is marred by polarization, elite control, and public disillusionment, this book introduces sortition – the practice of selecting political representatives through random lottery – as a revolutionary yet practical solution. (...) Blending historical insight with contemporary examples, the book traces sortition’s roots from its successful use in ancient Athens to its resurgence in modern-day experiments in Ireland, Iceland, and beyond. (...) It outlines a bold proposal for implementing sortition at various levels of government, exploring the logistics of selection, training, and integration with existing institutions. (...) With a balance of rigorous research, compelling storytelling, and a touch of wit (...) Whether you’re a political junkie, a frustrated voter, or simply curious about how we can make governance more inclusive and effective, this book offers a hopeful vision for the future.'

The Democracy Manifesto: A Dialogue on Why Elections Need to be Replaced with Sortition | Bol.com | Libris
auteurs: Wayne Waxman en Alison McCulloch, 15 december 2021 (198 blz)
'Elections are not the solution to political crisis, they're the problem. In lively dialogue form, The Democracy Manifesto explains why elections are anti-democratic and should be replaced with government in which decision-makers are randomly selected from the population at large.'
Zie ook de discussie over dit boek op Equalitybylot.com

Activated Citizenship: The Transforming Power of Citizens’ Assemblies | Amazon.nl | Libris
auteur: Marjan H. Ehsassi, directeur FIDE Noord-Amerika, 14 augustus 2024 (286 blz)
'Based on empirical evidence, the book explores the ways in which government-led citizens’ assemblies can promote a more Activated Citizen. To fully realize the transformative potential of deliberative platforms, a final chapter offers a blueprint for impact, outlining concrete measures along with recommendations for the design and implementation of future government-initiated deliberative platforms.'
Zie ook: interview met Ehsassi, november 2024

Lottocracy: Democracy without Elections | Amazon.com | Bol.com 
auteur: Alexander Guerrero, oktober 2024 (464 blz) 
'Elections are failing as accountability mechanisms (...). Elections provide powerful short-term incentives, leading elected politicians to downplay long-term catastrophic concerns. Elections create division where none need exist. (...) Alexander Guerrero takes seriously the possibility that although electoral democracy has been better than all systems that have been tried, the basic mechanism at its core — the election — is broken, and unworkable under modern political conditions. (...) Guerrero introduces and discusses lottocratic systems, their potential advantages, and potential concerns. The argument engages with foundational philosophical questions, considering how rights of political participation, political equality, political power, considerations of accountability and legitimacy, and the nature of democracy itself are illuminated and reconfigured once we move past the electoral representative framework.'
zie ook: podcast met professor Guerrero, 2023, en review door Sam Mace, december 2024

Politics of Random Selection — Making Good Use of Sortition | Libris | Bol.com | Amazon.com
auteur: Gil Delannoi, 7 januari 2025 (106 blz, €19,95; US$23.79; £12.95)
'The literature on sortition consists of three main genres: monographs, arguments for and against, and the history of the procedure in one or more dimensions. This book stands a little apart from this framework. Its method is largely deductive and theoretical in reasoning. It has a practical purpose which is aimed at specialists as well as naïve users and interested parties: precise enough to satisfy an informed public and simple enough to be accessible to citizens and practitioners. (...) 'What should you do when you have decided to use the drawing of lots in a procedure? What practical questions arise? What options are available? What are the details? What advantages and disadvantages should we expect from each option? What are the risks to be aware of and the precautions to take?'

Verwacht (2024):
Politics Without Politicians ​​​​​
auteur: Hélène Landemore  (zie ook: artikel in The New Yorker, 2020)

Verwacht:
Democracy’s Second Act
auteurs: Peter MacLeod en Richard Johnson

Verwacht:
Superminority: Sortition and the Democratic Diarchy
auteurs: Keith Sutherland en Alex Kovner (University of Exeter)

Verwacht:
The Trouble with Elections
auteur: Terry Bouricius
Voordat de printversie van het boek uitkomt, stelt Bouricius in delen conceptversies beschikbaar, met de bedoeling feedback te krijgen om het definitieve boek beter te maken. Je opgeven voor het krijgen van conceptversies kan hier.

 

Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century | Bol.com | Libris
auteur: Hélène Landemore, 13 oktober 2020 (272 blz)
'Open Democracy demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, today more than ever, urgently needed.' 
Zie ook: No Time for Castles: From Closed to Open Democracy, interview met Hélène Landemore, Resilience, 16 juli 2021; de podcast A Radical Proposal for True Democracy waarin Ezra Klein (New York Times) Hélène Landemore interviewt; de bespreking van Open Democracy door Yoram Gat op Equalitybylot.com en de samenvatting van Open Democracy door Arthur Massicot op de Franstalige website Démocurieux.

Demopolis: Democracy Before Liberalism in Theory and Practice | Bol.com
auteur: Josiah Ober, 2017 (218 blz)
'Combining history with political theory, this book restores the core meaning of democracy as collective and limited self-government by citizens. That, rather than majority tyranny, is what democracy meant in ancient Athens, before liberalism. Participatory self-government is the basis of political practice in 'Demopolis', a hypothetical modern state powerfully imagined by award-winning historian and political scientist Josiah Ober. Demopolis' residents aim to establish a secure, prosperous, and non-tyrannical community, where citizens govern as a collective, both directly and through representatives, and willingly assume the costs of self-government because doing so benefits them, both as a group and individually.'

Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many | Libris | Bol.com
auteur: Hélène Landemore, 2017 (304 blz)
'Individual decision making can often be wrong due to misinformation, impulses, or biases. Collective decision making, on the other hand, can be surprisingly accurate. In Democratic Reason, Hélène Landemore demonstrates that the very factors behind the superiority of collective decision making add up to a strong case for democracy. She shows that the processes and procedures of democratic decision making form a cognitive system that ensures that decisions taken by the many are more likely to be right than decisions taken by the few. Democracy as a form of government is therefore valuable not only because it is legitimate and just, but also because it is smart.'

Sortition and Democracy: History, Tools, Theories | Amazon.nl
redactie: Liliane Lopez-Rabatel en Yves Sintomer, 2020 (530 blz)
'brings together a number of the best specialists on political sortition from antiquity to contemporary experiments, in Europe but also in the Ancient Middle East and in imperial China. With a transdisciplinary perspective, this volume demonstrates that sortition has been a crucial device in political history; that the instruments and places where sortition was practised matter for the understanding of the social and political logics at stake; and that these logics have been quite different, random selection being sometimes an instrument of radical democracy and in other contexts a tool for solving conflicts among elites. Will sortition in politics helps to democratize democracy in the twenty-first century?'

Foundations and Frontiers of Deliberative Governance | Bol.com
auteur: John Dryzek, 2012 (256 blz)
'How can deliberative legitimacy be achieved in large-scale societies where face-to-face deliberation is implausible? What can and should representation mean in such systems? What kinds of communication should be valued, and why? How can competing appeals of pluralism and consensus in democratic politics be reconciled?'

Legislature by Lot: Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance | Libris | Bol.com
auteurs: John Gastil en Erik Olin Wright, 9 april 2019 (448 blz)
'John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright make the case for pairing a sortition body with an elected chamber within a bicameral legislature. Gastil is a leading deliberative democracy scholar, and Wright a distinguished sociologist and editor of the Real Utopias series, of which this is a part. In this volume, they bring together critics and advocates of sortition who have studied ancient Athens, deliberative polling, political theory, social movements, and civic innovation.'
Daaruit: A gradualist path towards sortition (pdf) door Deven Burks en Raphaël Kies, Universiteit van Luxemburg, 2019 (blz 259-277), samengevat in het Frans op Démocurieux

Democracy in Crisis: Lessons from Ancient Athens | Libris | Bol.com
auteur: Jeff Miller, 2022 (235 blz)
'Western liberal democracies find themselves in the midst of what political theorists call a legitimation crisis: major portions of the population lack confidence in the ability of governments to address our most pressing problems. (...) Liberal democracies face major structural and normative challenges in the near future that require us to look beyond the traditional set of solutions available. Democracy in Crisis points back to the world's first democratic government, Ancient Athens, to see what made that political arrangement durable and resistant to both internal and external threats. The argument focuses on several distinctive Athenian institutions and practices, and considers how we might reimagine them in the modern world.'

The Political Potential of Sortition | Bol.com
auteur: Oliver Dowlen, 2017 (300 blz)
'The central feature of every true lottery is that all rational evaluation is deliberately excluded. Once this principle is grasped, the author argues, we can begin to understand exactly what benefits sortition can bring to the political community. The book includes a study of the use of sortition in ancient Athens and in late medieval and renaissance Italy. It also includes commentary on the contributions to sortition made by Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Harrington and Paine; an account of the history of the randomly-selected jury; and new research into lesser-known examples from England, America and revolutionary France.'

Permanent Citizens’ Assemblies: A New Model for Public Deliberation | Amazon.nl | gratis pdf
auteur: Larry Patriquin, 2020 (93 blz)
'This book focuses on one way to strengthen our political system, to increase its legitimacy, by forcing governments to, in effect, listen to “the people.” It makes a case for the creation of permanent citizens’ assemblies (CAs). These assemblies would consist of groups of ordinary adults, an equal number of men and women, chosen at random from the population, from among those who are willing and able to participate. They would be charged with examining important public issues and recommending ways to address those issues.'

Power in Deliberative Democracy: Norms, Forums, Systems | Bol.com
auteurs: Nicole Curato, Marit Hammond en John Min, 2018 (190 blz)
'This book (...) argues that deliberative democracy’s tense relationship with power is not a pathology but constitutive of deliberative practice. Deliberative democracy gains relevance when it navigates complex relations of power in modern societies, learns from its mistakes, remains epistemically humble but not politically meek.'

Democracy When the People Are Thinking | Libris | Bol.com | pdf
auteur: James S. Fishkin, 2020 (272 blz)
'contributes both to political theory and to the empirical study of public opinion and participation. It should interest anyone concerned about the future of democracy and how it can be revitalized.'

When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation | Libris | Bol.com
auteur: James S. Fishkin, 2011 (254 blz)
'outlines deliberative democracy projects conducted by the author with various collaborators in the US, China, Britain, Denmark, Australia, Italy, Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, and in the entire European Union. These projects have resulted in the massive expansion of wind power in Texas, the building of sewage treatment plants in China, and greater mutual understanding between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.'

Every Cook Can Govern — A Study of Democracy in Ancient Greece; Its Meaning for Today | pdf
auteur: C. L. R. James, 1956 (11 blz)
'a short and eminently readable piece counterpoising direct with representative democracy, and getting to the heart of how we should relate to one another. (...) implacable hostility toward all “condescending saviors” of the working class, and undying faith in the power of ordinary people to build a new world.'
'C. L. R. James (1901–1989), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and writer, is the author of The Black Jacobins, an influential study of the Haitian Revolution.'
Werd in combinatie met een ander werk uitgegeven in A New Notion

A Citizen Legislature | gratis online versie
auteurs: Ernest Callenbach en Michael Phillips, 1985 (90 blz)
De auteurs stellen voor om het Amerikaanse House of Representatives om te vormen tot een Representative House met 435 gelote volksvertegenwoordigers.

Is Democracy Possible? — The Alternative to Electoral Democracy | Bol.com
John Burnheim, 2006 (tweede uitgave, 164 blz; oorspronkelijk 1985)
'bold and original proposals for the working of a new democracy. In particular he provides a radical reinterpretation of the concept and mechanics of representation and a structure that is designed to avoid concentrations of power and powertrading at any level. Among other points, he argues that we must abandon mass voting in favour of statistical representation.'
Zie ook: Wikipedia: Is Democracy Possible?

Radical Proceduralism: Democracy from Philosophical Principles to Political Institutions | Libris | Bol.com
auteur: Dannica Fleuß, 30 juni 2021 (216 blz)
'Proposing an alternative, ‘radical proceduralist’ understanding of democratic legitimacy and institutional reform, Radical Proceduralism argues that there is no such thing as ‘political truth’ or ‘correctness’ that could justify experts wielding political power. Rather, the only criterion for democratic legitimacy is the fair and equal inclusion of all affected citizens.'

The A, B and C of Democracy | Amazon.nl | Bol.com
auteurs: Luca Belgiorno-Nettis en Kyle Redman, 31 augustus 2021 (112 blz)
'This handbook is an introduction to minipublics – otherwise known as citizens’ juries or assemblies – interspersed with a few travel anecdotes to share the momentum behind the basic methodology of deliberative democracy. As the world accelerates into its digital future, with new modes of working, connecting and living – our parliaments remain relics from a primordial, ideological and adversarial age. Meanwhile urgent challenges are stumbling to half-solutions in slow-motion. Collaboration amongst us humans in the Anthropocene is no longer just a nice-to-have.'

Sorted: Civic Lotteries and the Future of Public Participation (gratis pdf)
auteur: Oliver Dowlen, 2008 (68 blz)
'In 2004 and 2006, two major democratic experiments took place in Canada’s first and third most populous provinces. Two years later, this pamphlet explores the impact of Ontario and British Columbia’s first Citizens’ Assemblies by examining the premise on which each assembly was based: the use of sortition or a ‘civic lottery’ to select citizens to participate in a binding public process. By examining use of civic lotteries through history – a tradition that remains at the core of our judicial system – this pamphlet explains how sortition can lower the barrier to political participation and extend a meaningful, new franchise to citizens wishing to serve their communities.'

Can Democracy Safeguard the Future? | Libris
auteur: Graham Smith, 2021 (160 blz)
'From pensions to pandemics, health and social care through to climate, biodiversity and emerging technologies, democracies have been unable to deliver robust policies for the long term. Graham Smith asks why. He considers ways of reshaping legislatures and constitutions and proposes strengthening independent offices whose overarching goals do not change at every election. More radically, Smith argues that forms of participatory and deliberative politics offer the most effective democratic response to the current political myopia, as well as a powerful means of protecting the interests of generations to come.'

We Need To Talk About Climate — How Citizens’ Assemblies Can Help Us Solve The Climate Crisis | Amazon.nl | gratis EPUB/Mobi/pdf download | gratis mp3 audiobook
auteur: Graham Smith, 5 september 2024 (182 blz)
'This book explains why climate assemblies have captured the imagination of governments and activists alike, exploring the ways they can have a meaningful impact on climate politics.'
Book Launch - We Need to Talk about Climate: How Citizens’ Assemblies Can Help Us Solve the Climate Crisis; David Van Reybrouck: "If climate assemblies are about the wisdom of the crowds. This book is about the wisdom of the wisdom of the crowds."
Zie ook: interview met Graham Smith, november 2024

Too Hot to Handle? The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change | Bol.com
auteur: Rebecca Willis, 2020 (162 blz)
'this book explores why climate is such a challenge for political systems, even when policy solutions exist. It argues that more democracy, not less, is needed to tackle the climate crisis, and suggests practical ways forward.'

Future Publics: Democracy, Deliberation, and Future-Regarding Collective Action | Bol.com
auteur: Michael K. Mackenzie, 2021 (240 blz)
'we have been unable to manage many long-term issues including climate change, nuclear waste disposal, natural disaster preparedness, infrastructure maintenance, and budget deficits. If voters and influential actors, such as interest groups and corporations, have dominant short-term interests, it may be difficult for elected politicians to act in the long-term interests of society, even if they think that it would be the right thing to do. (...) Despite the short-term dynamics associated with electoral democracy, MacKenzie asserts that we need more inclusive and deliberative democracies if we are going to make shared futures that will work for us all.'

The Athenian Option: Radical Reform for the House of Lords | Bol.com
auteurs: Anthony Barnett en Peter Carty, 2008 (112 blz)
'Before New Labour came to power and when even the prospect of reform of Britain’s House of Lords was regarded with scepticism, Anthony Barnett and Peter Carty developed the idea of selecting part of a new upper house by lot: creating a jury or juries, that are representative of the population as a whole while being selected at random, to assess legislation. This new edition of the original proposal includes an account of the reception of the idea, their evidence before the Commission on the Lords established by Tony Blair, and a response to the great advances in citizen-based deliberation that have taken place since the mid-1990s.'

A People's Parliament/A Citizen Legislature | Bol.com
auteurs: Ernest Callenbach, Michael Phillips en Keith Sutherland, 2008 (350 blz)
'Two essays, printed back to back in a single volume, offer complementary solutions to the democratic deficit in Britain and the USA. (...) The American founders proposed that their legislature should be 'an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large’. Whether or not this was true at the time, the exponential growth of the population, skyrocketing campaign funding, the power of pressure groups, the grease of the pork-barrel and the dominance of charisma and demagoguery means that the US Constitution could now better be described as a kleptocracy. This pioneering essay proposes selecting Congressional members by random lot (leaving the Senate and Presidency unchanged) to 'restore a direct, powerful voice in Washington to the whole of America’.'

Saving Democracy: A Plan for Real Representation in America | Amazon.nl
auteur: Kevin O’Leary, 2006 (304 blz)
'Under the author's plan, in each of the nation's 435 congressional districts a local assembly of 100 citizens, selected by lot, would meet to discuss the major domestic and international issues. The role of this assembly would be deliberative and advisory and its views would constitute a second, more sophisticated and informed measure of public opinion than traditional public opinion polls. The next step would be the establishment of the People's House, which would hold actual legislative power.'

Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government | Amazon.nl
auteur: Ethan Leib, 2004 (168 blz)
'blueprint for a fourth branch of government as a way of giving the people a voice of their own. (...) Leib concentrates on designing an institutional scheme for embedding deliberation in the practice of American democratic government. At the heart of his scheme is a process for the adjudication of issues of public policy by assemblies of randomly selected citizens convened to debate and vote on the issues, resulting in the enactment of laws subject both to judicial review and to possible veto by the executive and legislative branches. The "popular" branch would fulfill a purpose similar to the ballot initiative and referendum but avoid the shortcomings associated with those forms of direct democracy. Leib takes special pains to show how this new branch would be integrated with the already existing governmental and political institutions of our society, including administrative agencies and political parties, and would thus complement rather than supplant them.'

A New Constitution for the United States of America — A New Birth of Freedom, Responsibility, and Affection | Amazon.com | Amazon.nl
auteur: Neal Beets (487 blz, US$9.99), oktober 2020
'Complete text of a new constitution for the United States, preserving what is best in our current Constitution and adding new policies (and reasons for those new policies) responding to the last two hundred years of American history and experience with our current Constitution'. Met een rol voor loting.

The Principles of Representative Government | Libris | Bol.com
auteur: Bernard Manin, 1997 (256 blz)
'The thesis of this original and provocative book is that representative government should be understood as a combination of democratic and undemocratic, aristocratic elements. Professor Manin challenges the conventional view that representative democracy is no more than an indirect form of government by the people, in which citizens elect representatives only because they cannot assemble and govern in person. The argument is developed by examining the historical moments when the present institutional arrangements were chosen from among the then available alternatives. Professor Manin reminds us that while today representative institutions and democracy appear as virtually indistinguishable, when representative government was first established in Europe and America, it was designed in opposition to democracy proper. Drawing on the procedures used in earlier republican systems, from classical Athens to Renaissance Florence, in order to highlight the alternatives that were forsaken, Manin brings to the fore the generally overlooked results of representative mechanisms. These include the elitist aspect of elections and the non-binding character of campaign promises.'

Beyond Adversary Democracy | Amazon.nl
auteur: Jane Mansbridge, 1980 (412 blz)
'Every step in this adversary process violates another, older understanding of democracy. In that older understanding, people who disagree do not vote; they reason together until they agree on the best answer. Nor do they elect representatives to reason for them. They come together with their friends to find agreement. This democracy is consensual, based on common interest and equal respect. It is the democracy of face-to-face relations. Because it assumes that citizens have a single common interest, I have called it "unitary" democracy.'

Democracy for realists: why elections do not produce responsive government | Bol.com | Libris
auteurs: Christopher Achen en Larry Bartels, 2016 (410 blz, €19,61)
commentaar op dit boek door Terry Bouricius, degene die een modern concept van multi-body sortition uitwerkte: 'They unarguably document that elections cannot work to hold politicians accountable, and then shrug, and suggest stronger parties, etc. as a “realistic” alternative to actual democracy. I highly recommend most of their book, for its examples and evidence of why elections can never work…. but the reader should then go on to explore sortition as the workable alternative.'

The Lottocratic Mentality. Defending Democracy against Lottocracy | Libris.nl | Bol.com
auteurs: Cristina Lafont en Nadia Urbinati (288 blz, Oxford University Press, £35.00), december 2024
'Exposes the anti-democratic elements of the lottocratic mentality that is inspiring the organization of citizens' assemblies and similar forms of citizen participation worldwide. Highlights the democratic significance of elections, political parties, and inclusive public debate. Offers a systematic analysis of the pros and cons of different types of political, lottocratic proposals, with special attention to their potential for democratization.' 

Against Sortition? The Problem with Citizens' Assemblies | Libris | Bol.com
redacteur: Geoffrey Grandjean, 7 mei 2024 (300 blz, £35.00; €39,99 à €49,95; US$70.00)
'This book presents the institutionalisation of sortition while questioning its political consequences in terms of representation and deliberation. Several examples are used, such as the Citizens’ Climate Convention in France and the Conference on the Future of Europe. In the end, the book helps to identify the consequences of using sortition with regard to the principles of equality and inclusion. Above all, it offers readers the possibility of continuing to reflect on this method of random selection, while promoting the implementation of greater equality between citizens.'

Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything Is All of Us | Libris | Bol.com
auteur: Jon Alexander, februari 2022 (320 blz)
'when our institutions treat people as creative, empowered creatures rather than consumers, everything changes. Unleashing the power of everyone equips us to face the challenges of economic insecurity, climate crisis, public health threats, and polarisation. Citizens is an upbeat handbook, full of insights, clear examples to follow, and inspiring case studies, from the slums of Kenya to the backstreets of Birmingham'
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Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections | pdf | online
UN Democracy Fund & the newDemocracy Foundation, 2019 (232 blz)
Gratis handboek voor het ontwerpen en organiseren van democratische besluitvorming door middel van gelote burgerraden, met hoofdstukken speciaal gericht op politici, ambtenaren, belangenbehartigers en projectteams.

De Gruyter handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies | Amazon.nl | pdf | epub
redactie: Min Reuchamps , Julien Vrydagh en Yanina Welp, mei 2023 (412 blz)
'showcases the state of the art around the study of CAs and opens novel perspectives informed by multidisciplinary research and renewed thinking about deliberative participatory processes. It discusses the latest theoretical, empirical, and methodological scientific developments on CAs and offers a unique resource for scholars, decision-makers, practitioners, and curious citizens to better understand the qualities, purposes, promises but also pitfalls of CAs.'

The Luck of the Draw: The Role of Lotteries in Decision Making | Bol.com
auteur: Peter Stone, 2011 (208 blz)
'Normally we want to make our decisions based upon reasons. But sometimes, we do not. Sometimes, in fact, we want to exclude reasons from decision‐making entirely. This is what lotteries can do. And they can perform this valuable service for us in a surprisingly large number of situations.'

Lotteries in Public Life: A Reader | Bol.com
redacteur: Peter Stone, 2011 (250 blz)
'Lotteries have been used to make all kinds of public decisions ever since the days of Ancient Greece. They can contribute to some of our most important values, such as rationality, justice, and democracy. But until recently, there was no theory to make sense of lotteries and what they can do. The past few decades have changed that with a veritable renaissance of studies on lotteries. This book collects fourteen of the most important of these papers, and offers a critical introduction tying them together.'

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