Listen to Art O'Leary and Members of the Irish Assembly on Biodiversity Loss speak about how Citizens' Assemblies have helped transform Irish democracy.
i'm a proponent of election by jury, which is similar but the "jury" votes on the elected officials who actually do the policy making. still, this sort of semi-binding sortition, where the decision actually goes to a vote of the people, clearly does a lot of good.
Career politicians are resisting, because Citizens Assemblies dilutes their "power", forgetting (conveniently) that Representative Democracy is about service and responsible accountability and not political power. (the reason "loyal opposition" adversarial parliamentary debates have degenerated into Tweedledum and Tweedledee shows)
Bloody beautiful. But why is it taking so long to implement democracy around the world? Ireland is currently the most advanced. Actually, I know why. It is not in the interests of the career politicians who've made a handsome career working in the existing electoral aristocracy. I hope we're not forced into revolution in order to make this next advancement.
