This is one of the best outlines I've seen for how Citizen Assemblies could be integrated with the system the US has today.
The big question it leaves me asking is "how do we get from here to there?". Moving to Citizen Assemblies seems like a big step, so what is the most plausible sequence of small steps that gets us there?
Two more possible application for citizens' committees chosen by lot from the general citizenry or from a pool of volunteer applicants (with apologies if either is covered somewhere within your post, which I just now skimmed):
1. Redistricting: drawing legislative district boundaries. (There's a list of US states that are already doing this, labeled with the "Non-politician commission" category in the "State-by-state procedures" tables at https://ballotpedia.org/State-by-state_redistricting_procedures)
This is one of the best outlines I've seen for how Citizen Assemblies could be integrated with the system the US has today.
The big question it leaves me asking is "how do we get from here to there?". Moving to Citizen Assemblies seems like a big step, so what is the most plausible sequence of small steps that gets us there?
Thanks, Nicholas!
Two more possible application for citizens' committees chosen by lot from the general citizenry or from a pool of volunteer applicants (with apologies if either is covered somewhere within your post, which I just now skimmed):
1. Redistricting: drawing legislative district boundaries. (There's a list of US states that are already doing this, labeled with the "Non-politician commission" category in the "State-by-state procedures" tables at https://ballotpedia.org/State-by-state_redistricting_procedures)
2. Making decisions or proposals regarding hard problems and other, similar "deliberative tasks." (See Joe Klein's classic piece on this, in Time magazine back in 2010, https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2015790,00.html)
Also, one more potential addition to your list of inspirations/references:
"Why elections are bad for democracy" by David Van Reybrouck
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/29/why-elections-are-bad-for-democracy