1 http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp.
2 Eric Hobsbawm, 1995: Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991. London, 112.
3 Freedom House, 2013: Freedom in the World 2013: Democratic Breakthroughs in the Balance. London, 28-29.
4 Ronald Inglehart, 2003: ‘How solid is mass support for democracy – and how can we measure it?’ Science and Politics, January, 51-57.
5 In 1999–2000, 33.3% of those questioned said that a strong leader who need take no account of elections or parliament was a good idea. By 2005–08 the figure was 38.1%. As for faith, in 2005–08 52.4% of those questioned had little or no faith in their government, 60.3% in their parliament and 72.8% in the political parties.
6 Eurobarometer, 2012: Standard Eurobarometer 78: First Results. Autumn 2012, 14. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb78/eb78_first_en.pdf (last accessed 26 March 2016).
7 http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/smt/3eqls/index.EF.php. The figures for press, parliament and government are from 2012, those for political parties from 2007.
8 Peter Kanne, 2011: Gedoogdemocratie: Heeft stemmen eigenlijk wel zin? Amsterdam, 83.
9 Koen Abts, Marc Swyngedouw & Dirk Jacobs, 2011: ‘Politieke betrokkenheid en institutioneel wantrouwen. De spiraal van het wantrouwen doorbroken?’, in Koen Abts et al., Nieuwe tijden, nieuwe mensen: Belgen over arbeid, gezin, ethiek, religie en politiek. Louvain, 173-214.
10 Luc Huyse, 1969: De niet-aanwezige staatsburger. Antwerp, 154-57.
11 Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver & Peter Mair, 2011: Representative Government in Modern Europe. Maidenhead, 306.
12 http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opkomstplicht (last accessed 26 March 2016).
13 Koenraad De Ceuninck et al., 2013: ‘De bolletjeskermis van 14 oktober 2012: politiek is een kaartspel’. Sampol 1, 53.
14 Yvonne Zonderop, 2012: ‘Hoe het populisme kon aarden in Nederland’. http://counterpoint.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/507_CP_RRadical_Dutch_web.pdf (accessed 28 March 2016), 50.
15 http://www.parlement.com/id/vh8lnhrp8wsz/opkomstpercentage_tweede
16 Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver & Peter Mair, 2011: Representative Government in Modern Europe. Maidenhead, 311.
17 Paul F. Whitely, 2011: ‘Is the party over? The decline of party activism and membership across the democratic world’. Party Politics 16, 1, 21-44.
18 Ingrid Van Biezen, Peter Mair & Thomas Poguntke, 2012: ‘Going, going, … gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe’. European Journal of Political Research 51, 33, 38.
19 http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historisch_overzicht_van_kabinetsformaties_(Nederland) (last accessed 28 March 2016). See also Sona N. Golder, 2010: ‘Bargaining Delays in the Government Formation Process’. Comparative Political Studies 43, 1, 3-32.
20 Hanne Marthe Narud & Henry Valen, 2005: ‘Coalition membership and electoral performance in Western Europe’. Paper for presentation at the 2005 NOPSA Meeting, Reykjavik, August 11–13, 2005. See also Peter Mair, 2011: ‘How Parties Govern’, lecture at the Central European University, Budapest, 29 April 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgyjdzfcbps, from 27:50 (last accessed 28 March 2016).
21 Tweede kamer der Staten-Generaal, 2008–09: Vertrouwen en zelfvertrouwen. Parlementaire zelfreflectie 2007–2009. 31, 845, nos. 2-3, 38-39.
22 Ibid., 34.
23 Hansje Galesloot, 2005: Vinden en vasthouden. Werving van politiek en bestuurlijk talent. Amsterdam.
24 Herman Van Rompuy, 2013: ‘Over stilte en leiderschap’, speech delivered in Turnhout on 7 June 2013, http://destillekempen.be/nieuws/stiltenieuws/herman-van-rompuy-over-stilte-en-leiderschap/ (accessed 28 March 2016).
25 In an earlier essay, Pleidooi voor populisme (Amsterdam, 2008), I advocated not less but better populism. After all, populist voting behaviour expresses, in an inconvenient way, the ever-present desire for political involvement among the less educated strata of society.
26 Mark Bovens & Anchrit Wille, 2011: Diplomademocratie. Over de spanning tussen meritocratie en democratie. Amsterdam.
27 Cited in Raad voor het Openbaar Bestuur, 2010: Vertrouwen op democratie. The Hague, 38.
28 John R. Hibbing & Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, 2002: Stealth Democracy: Americans’ Beliefs about How Government Should Work. Cambridge, 156.
29 Sarah van Gelder (ed.), 2011: This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement. San Francisco, 18.
30 For an excellent analysis: Tom Vandyck, ‘“Compromis”, een nieuw vuil woord’. De Morgen, 11 July 2011, 13.
31 Ibid.
32 Lars Mensel: ‘Dissatisfaction makes me hopeful’, interview with Michael Hardt. The European, 15 April 2013.
33 Lenny Flank (ed.), 2011: Voices From the 99 Percent: An Oral History of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. St Petersburg, Florida, 91.
34 Early books about Occupy Wall Street are rather self-glorifying. As well as the collections edited by van Gelder and Flank, I read Todd Gitlin, Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street (New York, 2012) and the work of the collective Writers for the 99%, called Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America (New York, 2011).
35 Sarah van Gelder (ed.), 2011: This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement. San Francisco, 25.
36 Mary Kaldor & Sabine Selchow, 2012: ‘The “bubbling up” of subterranean politics in Europe’. Report, London School of Economics and Political Science, June 2012, 10 (last accessed online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/44873/1/The%20%E2%80%98bubbling%20up%E2%80%99%20of%20subterranean%20politics%20in%20Europe(lsero).pdf, 28 March 2016).
37 Ibid., 12.
38 V.I. Lenin, 1917 (1976): The State and Revolution, Beijing, 23-24 & 41. Also available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch03.htm.
39 Chris Hedges & Joe Sacco, 2012: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. New York, 232.
40 Pierre Rosanvallon, 2012: Democratie en tegendemocratie, Amsterdam, 54.
41 Thomas Frank, 2012: ‘To the Precinct Station. How theory met practice … and drove it absolutely crazy’, The Baffler no. 21.
42 Willem Schinkel, 2012: De nieuwe democratie: Naar andere vormen van politiek. Amsterdam, 168.
43 Stéphane Hessel, 2013: À nous de jouer: Appel aux indignés de cette Terre. Paris, 63.
44 Fiona Ehlers et al.: ‘Europe’s lost generation finds its voice’. SpiegelOnline, 13 March 2013.
45 Through its ‘liquid feedback’ software, for instance, and its notion of ‘delegative’ democracy.
46 David Van Reybrouck: ‘De democratie in ademnood: de gevaren van electoraal fundamentalisme’. Cleveringa lecture, University of Leiden, 28 November 2011.
47 Pierre Rosanvallon, 2008: Democratic Legitimacy: Impartiality, Reflexivity, Proximity. Princeton, 21-22, 55-56.
48 Edmund Burke, 1774: ‘Speech to the Electors of Bristol’. press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html.
49 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 (1947), The Social Contract, New York, Book IV, Chapter II (eighteenth-century translation, revised and edited by Charles Frankel), 94.
50 Lars Mensel: ‘Dissatisfaction makes me hopeful’, interview with Michael Hardt. The European, 15 April 2013.
51 Colin Crouch, 2004: Post-Democracy. Cambridge, 4.
52 Marc Michils, 2011: Open boek. Over eerlijke reclame in een transparante wereld. Louvain, 100-01.
53 Jan de Zutter, 2013: ‘Het zijn de burgers die aan het stuur zitten’. Interview with Jan Rotmans. Sampol 20, 3, 24.
54 The renewed interest in Athenian democracy can be attributed to the English translation of the life’s work of Danish classicist M.H. Hansen: The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (Oxford, 1991). The original, a minute analysis of the fourth-century sources, is in six volumes.
55 Bernard Manin, 1995 (1997): The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge, 1, 94, 236.
56 See Bibliography.
57 Aristotle, 350 bc (1885), Politics, Oxford, vol. 1, book four, part IX & book six, part II (translated by Benjamin Jowett), 124, 125, 189.
58 Terrill Bouricius, 2013: ‘Democracy through multi-body sortition: Athenian lessons for the modern day’. Journal of Public Deliberation 9, 1, article 11.
59 Miranda Mowbray & Dieter Gollman, 2007: ‘Electing the Doge of Venice: analysis of a 13th century protocol’. www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2007/HPL-2007-28R1.pdf (last accessed 29 March 2016).
60 Yves Sintomer, 2011: Petite histoire de l’expérimentaion démocratique: Tirage au sort et politique d’Athènes à nos jours. Paris, 86.
61 Hubertus Buchstein, 2009: Demokratie und Lotterie: Das Lot als politisches: Entscheidungsinstrument von Antike bis zur EU. Frankfurt, 186.
62 Montesquieu, 1748 (1989), The Spirit of the Laws, Cambridge, book II, chapter II (translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller & Harold Samuel Stone), 13-14.
63 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 (1947), The Social Contract, New York, book IV, chapter III (eighteenth-century translation, revised and edited by Charles Frankel), 97-98.
64 Bernard Manin, 1995 (1997): The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge, 79.
65 Montesquieu, 1748 (1989), The Spirit of the Laws, Cambridge, book II, chapter II (translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller & Harold Samuel Stone), 10.
66 John Adams, 1851: The Works of John Adams. Boston, vol. 6, 484.
67 James Madison, 1787: Federalist Paper no. 10. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch4s19.html (last accessed 29 March 2016).
68 Cited in Francis Dupuis-Déri, 2013: Démocratie: Histoire politique d’un mot aux États-Unis et en France. Montreal, 138.
69 Ibid., 149.
70 Howard Zinn, 1999 (2015): A People’s History of the United States. New York, 90.
71 Francis Dupuis-Déri, 2013: Démocratie: Histoire politique d’un mot aux États-Unis et en France. Montreal, 87.
72 For a thorough analysis, see Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (New York, 2005) and Francis Dupuis-Déri, Démocratie: Histoire politique d’un mot aux États-Unis et en France (Montreal, 2013).
73 James Madison, 1788: Federalist Paper no. 57. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_2_3s16.html (accessed 29 March 2016).
74 Bernard Manin, 1995 (1997): The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge, 116-17.
75 Cited in Francis Dupuis-Déri, 2013: Démocratie: Histoire politique d’un mot aux États-Unis et en France. Montreal, 155. English original available at http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/v1ch15s61.html
76 Cited in Keith Michael Baker, 1990: Inventing the French Revolution. Cambridge, 249.
77 Francis Dupuis-Déri, 2013: Démocratie: Histoire politique d’un mot aux États-Unis et en France. Montreal, 112.
78 Edmund Burke, 1790: Reflections on the Revolution in France. www.constitution.org/eb/rev_fran.htm (last accessed 29 March 2016).
79 Cited in Andrew Jainchill, 2008, Reimagining Politics After the Terror: The Republican Origins of French Liberalism. New York, 43.
80 Cited in Francis Dupuis-Déri, 2013: Démocratie: Histoire politique d’un mot aux États-Unis et en France. Montreal. 156.
81 Cited in Yves Sintomer, 2011: Petite histoire de l’expérimentation démocratique: Tirage au sort et politique d’Athènes à nos jours. Paris, 120.
82 Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835 & 1840 (1899): Democracy in America. New York, book I, part I, chapter VIII (translated by Henry Reeve), 95, 97, 100.
83 Ibid., 226, 228, 229.
84 I make use of E.H. Kossmann, The Low Countries 1780–1940 (Oxford, 1978), Marc Reynebeau, Een geschiedenis van België (Tielt, 2003), Rolf Falter, 1830: De scheiding van Nederland, België en Luxemburg (Tielt, 2005), Els Witte, Jean-Pierre Nandrin, Eliane Gubin & Gita Deneckere, Nieuwe geschiedenis van België, deel 1: 1830 (Tielt, 2005) and Els Witte, Jan Craeybeckx & Alain Meynen, Politieke geschiedenis van België: van 1830 tot heden (Antwerp, 2005).
85 Rolf Falter, 2005: 1830: De scheiding van Nederland, België en Luxemburg. Tielt, 203.
86 E.H. Kossmann, 1978, The Low Countries 1780–1940. Oxford, 157.
87 John Gilissen, 1968: ‘La Constitution belge de 1831: ses sources, son influence’. Res Publica, 107-41. See also: P. Lauvaux, 2010: ‘La Constitution belge aux sources de la Constitution de Tirnovo’, in L’union fait la force: Étude comparée de la Constitution belge et de la Constitution bulgare. Brussels, 43-54, and Asem Khalil, 2003: Which Constitution for the Palestinian Legal System? Rome, 11.
88 Zachary Elkins, 2010: ‘Diffusion and the constitutionalization of Europe’. Comparative Political Studies 43, 8/9, 988.
89 J.A. Hawgood, 1960: ‘Liberalism and constitutional developments’, in The New Cambridge Modern History, vol. x, The Zenith of European Power, 1830–70. Cambridge, 191.
90 Hendrik Conscience, 1850: De loteling. Antwerp.
91 James W. Headlam, 1891: Election by Lot at Athens. Cambridge, 1.
92 Francis Fukuyama, 1992: The End of History and the Last Man. New York, 43.
93 David Holmstrom, 1995: ‘New kind of poll aims to create an “authentic public voice”’. The Christian Science Monitor, 31 August 1995, and James S. Fishkin & Robert C. Luskin, 2005: ‘Experimenting with a democratic ideal: deliberative polling and public opinion’. Acta Politica, 40, 287.
94 Daniel M. Merkle, 1996: ‘The National Issues Convention deliberative poll’. Public Opinion Quarterly, 60, 588-619.
95 John Gastil, 1996: Deliberation at the National Issues Convention: An Observer’s Notes. Albuquerque, 21.
96 David Holmstrom, 1995: ‘New kind of poll aims to create an “authentic public voice”’. The Christian Science Monitor, 31 August 1995.
97 In Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland and for the EU, but also in Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Korea, Macao, Hong Kong and even China. See http://cdd.stanford.edu/.
98 Jeanette Hartz-Karp & Lyn Carson, 2009: ‘Putting the people into politics: the Australian Citizens’ Parliament’. International Journal of Public Participation 3, 1, 18.
99 Manon Sabine de Jongh, 2013: Group Dynamics in the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. PhD thesis, Utrecht, 53.
100 I derive this idea from a conversation with Kenneth Carty, the research director of the citizens’ forum in British Columbia, Louvain, 13 December 2012.
101 Manon Sabine de Jongh, 2013: Group Dynamics in the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. PhD thesis, Utrecht, 53-55.
102 Lawrence LeDuc, 2011: ‘Electoral reform and direct democracy in Canada: when citizens become involved’. West European Politics 34, 3, 559.
103 Ibid., 563.
104 John Parkinson, 2005: ‘Rickety bridges: using the media in deliberative democracy’. British Journal of Political Science 36, 175-83.
105 Eiríkur Bergmann, 2013: ‘Reconstituting Iceland: constitutional reform caught in a new critical order in the wake of crisis’. Conference paper, Leiden, January 2013.
106 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Constitutional_Assembly_election,_2010 (last accessed 1 April 2016).
107 https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/06/05/the-irish-vote-for-marriage-equality-started-at-a-constitutional-convention/
108 De Standaard, 29 December 2012.
109 Antoine Vergne, 2010: ‘A brief survey of the literature of sortition: is the age of sortition upon us?’, in Gil Delannoi & Oliver Dowlen (eds), Sortition: Theory and Practice. Exeter and Charlottesville, 80. Vergne counts sixteen, but recently several have been added.
110 For the US: Ernest Callenbach & Michael Phillips, A Citizen Legislature (Berkeley, 1985; new edition Exeter and Charlottesville, 2008); John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? The Alternative to Electoral Politics (London, 1985, full text online at http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/democracy/index.html, accessed 1 April 2016); Ethan J. Leib, Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government (Philadelphia, 2005); and Kevin O’Leary, Saving Democracy: A Plan for Real Presentation in America (Stanford, 2006). For Britain: Anthony Barnett & Peter Carty, The Athenian Option: Radical Reform for the House of Lords (London, 1998; new edition 2008, Exeter and Charlottesville); Alex Zakaras, ‘Lot and democratic representation: a modest proposal’, Constellations (2010) 17, 3; Keith Sutherland, A People’s Parliament: A (Revised) Blueprint for a Very English Revolution (Exeter and Charlottesville, 2008) and Keith Sutherland, ‘What sortition can and cannot do’ (2011, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1928927, last accessed 1 April 2016). For France: Yves Sintomer, Petite histoire de l’expérimentation démocratique: Tirage au sort et politique d’Athènes à nos jours (Paris, 2011). And for the EU: Hubertus Buchstein, Demokratie und Lotterie: Das Lot als politisches Entscheidungsinstrument von Antike bis zur EU (Frankfurt and New York, 2009) and Hubert Buchstein & Michael Hein, ‘Randomizing Europe: the lottery as a political instrument for a reformed European Union’, in Gil Delannoi & Oliver Dowlen (eds), Sortition: Theory and Practice (Exeter and Charlottesville, 2011), 119-55.
111 Ernest Callenbach & Michael Phillips, 1985 (2008): A Citizen Legislature. Exeter, 67.
112 Another difference between this and the proposal by Callenbach and Phillips is that among the six hundred members of the House of Peers would be several representatives of the political parties. They would not be chosen by lot but appointed to form a bridge between the citizens’ forum and political parties, rather in the way they did in the Irish constitutional convention. Barnett and Carty followed their American colleagues in suggesting that in sortition the conditions should be as attractive as possible (substantial salary; compensation to employers) so as to maximise diversity, but believed no one should be forced to participate as they are in some countries with military service or jury service.
113 Anthony Barnett & Peter Carty, 1998 (2008): The Athenian Option: Radical Reform for the House of Lords. Exeter, 22.
114 Keith Sutherland, 2011: ‘What sortition can and cannot do’. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1928927. See also Keith Sutherland, 2008: A People’s Parliament: A (Revised) Blueprint for a Very English Revolution. Exeter.
115 Yves Sintomer, 2011: Petite histoire de l’expérimentation démocratique: Tirage au sort et politique d’Athènes à nos jours. Paris, 235.
116 Hubertus Buchstein, 2009: Demokratie und Lotterie: Das Lot als politisches Entscheidungsinstrument von Antike bis zur EU. Frankfurt, 448.
117 Terrill Bouricius, 2013: ‘Democracy through multi-body sortition: Athenian lessons for the modern day’. Journal of Public Deliberation 9, 1, article 11, 5.
118 Terrill Bouricius, Email, 14 June 2013.
119 Terrill Bouricius & David Schecter, 2013: ‘An idealized design for the legislative branch of government’. Systems Thinking World Journal 2, 1.
120 John Keane, 2010: The Life and Death of Democracy. London, 737.
121 Alex Guerrero (in preparation): The Lottocratic Alternative. Unpublished manuscript.
122 Meeting of the Minds in 2005, European Citizens’ Consultations in 2007 and 2009.
123 This is really a matter of three communities (the Flemish, French-language and German-language) and three regions (Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia). Brussels is officially bilingual in French and Dutch; Wallonia is mainly French-speaking, with a German-speaking area in the east.
124 Secondary reasons are: 1) as a small country it is a suitable place to try out sortition (manageable travel distances, centrality of the capital, proximity to supervisory European institutions); 2) the official use of three languages and the existence of a thoroughly multilingual capital city present considerable challenges to those working with what academics call ‘deliberative democracy in divided societies’; 3) the country has a tradition of political innovation, not only with the constitution of 1831 but with the genocide law, the law on gay marriage and its euthanasia legislation, with which it was more than a decade ahead of many other European member states; 4) the complex composition of the population has created the constitutional equivalent of high technology, such as the principle of ‘the weighted majority’, which has since been taken over at a European level; 5) legally and constitutionally the country has always been a laboratory for the rest of Europe; 6) government and population are increasingly familiar with innovative citizen participation, through the work of a strong civil society (unions, employers’ organisations, youth movements, women’s movements, family organisations, clubs and societies), through the work of various foundations and institutions (King Baudouin Foundation, Foundation for Future Generations, G1000, Netwerk Participatie, Vlaams Instituut Samenleving en Technologie, States General, Ademloos, De Wakkere Burger, Kwadraet), through countless forms of successful citizen participation (at local, provincial and regional levels): in Belgium, democratic innovation is no longer taboo.
125 John Keane, 2010: The Life and Death of Democracy. London, 695-98.