Partisan Mini-Publics?

The notion that the recommendations of randomly selected ordinary citizens participating in deliberative mini-publics should impact decision-making processes in democratic systems has gained increasing support, both in public debates and in democratic theory. Traditionally, mini-publics have been promoted as impartial, non-partisan actors. Moreover, they have displayed no political agency as collectives over the longer term. This raises a number of normative questions about the democratic character and epistemic functions of mini-publics, as well as the ways in which they should impact broader democratic systems. One way of increasing the chances that recommendations by mini-publics are seriously considered and not cherry-picked is that mini-publics turn into active agents which advocate their recommendations. In this paper, we explore whether the view that mini-publics should act as advocates entails that mini-publics to turn into partisan actors. We will review different proposals and practices which aim to ensure the impact of mini-publics through political agency and advocacy, and identify the issues that emerge in these particular institutional and political constellations. We then investigate whether, and how, the requirements of agency and advocacy could be reconciled without undermining the key epistemic benefits and functions of mini-publics.