Democratic Mini-Publics and Citizens' Assemblies

Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs) employ randomly selected groups of citizens, who work together to develop recommendations on specific issues. In democratic practice, DMPs, which include Citizens’ Assemblies, Citizens’ Councils, Deliberative Panels, Citizens’ Jury, etc., are usually called into action by policymakers to complement representative decision-making. The following describes how DMPs work, why they are used, and what determines their success.