Watchdog Mini-Publics: Checking Power in Backsliding Democracies

This paper examines how deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) can contribute to democratic self-defence under conditions of backsliding, when institutional checks weaken and public reasoning is impaired. Drawing on recent experiments in Central and Eastern Europe - where democratic institutions have faced sustained pressure - as illustrative cases, the paper develops a typology of the functions DMPs can serve: technical, educational, informational, militant, and oversight. While most of these functions struggle to meaningfully challenge domination, the oversight function - grounded in citizens’ collective capacity for constructive distrust - offers a promising form of grassroots vigilance. By enabling ordinary citizens to monitor and expose corruption, clientelism, and political capture, DMPs with an oversight function provide opportunities to practise democratic scrutiny from below. The paper thus reimagines mini-publics not as consensus-builders or trust-restorers but as instruments of democratic vigilance and defence in politically adverse conditions.