Deliberative mini-publics are often understood as institutional mechanisms for citizen participation within the policy process. Whilst this interpretation largely corresponds to our empirical observations, it does not yet cover all the possible roles and functions of mini-publics. In fact, the use of mini-publics can be expanded beyond the context of policy making, constituting part of a social movement. In this paper, I study a series of ‘deliberation days’ in Hong Kong’s civil society which paved the way to the Occupy Central Movement in Autumn 2014. I compare Hong Kong’s ‘deliberation days’ with the ‘mainstream’ mini-publics in terms of process and outcome. I argue that, despite the unique design of Hong Kong’s ‘deliberation days’, they largely satisfy the essential desiderata for democratic institutions. This study sheds light on how micro-deliberation can be scaled up to make macro influence on not only specific policy but also the public sphere at large.
