A Democratic Innovation Against Another? Referendum and Sortition in Belgian Parliamentary Debates

Since the 2010s, several Belgian parliaments have begun institutionalizing participatory democratic mechanisms, most notably sortition—through the creation of deliberative commissions—and popular votation, supported by the constitutional revision enabling regional-level popular consultations. These developments raise an essential question about the relationship between these democratic innovations. This study aims to analyze how parliamentarians simultaneously engage with the concepts of referendum and sortition in the course of parliamentary debates surrounding these mechanisms. Do members of parliament perceive sortition and referendums as mutually exclusive? To what extent do they consider voting and deliberation compatible, and under which conditions? What legal and institutional constraints shape the implementation of participatory models that combine deliberative practices with instruments of popular vote? The central research question can thus be articulated as follows: how do Belgian parliamentarians oppose or combine sortition and referendums in parliamentary debates? Empirically, the research examines parliamentary debates and proposals relating to sortition and referendums across four legislatures: the Walloon and Brussels Parliaments, which have been legally empowered to organize non-binding popular consultations since 2014 and have been institutionalizing sortition since 2019 ; and the Federal House of Representatives and Senate, where discussions on incorporating random selection into institutional reforms have emerged since 2013 and where constitutional provisions regarding referendums may be revised. Through a comparative analysis of these parliamentary initiatives, the article identifies the democratic imaginaries underpinning the institutionalization of participatory mechanisms. It demonstrates how references to referendums are strategically mobilized—whether to legitimize, postpone, or contest the integration of sortition within representative structures. Ultimately, the findings contribute to broader debates on the reconfiguration of democratic legitimacy and the evolving interplay between votation, deliberation, representation, and populism in contemporary governance.