Key Citations

"Cleisthenis’ Demos was imagined as the State itself; as an active community of citizens in which the political sphere, the economy, the State and civil society all co-existed within the Assembly: Democracy was about the Demos getting (physically) together and engaging in a contest of opinions about what ought to be done. The point of the exercise was not to stage a process whereby the rulers consult the people but one in which the people rule."

- Yanis Varoufakis [1]

"Yet, if there is an overarching theme, a pressing cry, a revolutionary dream, it is the call for new forms of political deliberation, representation and decision-making… Because if citizens do not have the ways and means of their self-government, the best designed policies, the most sophisticated strategies, the more well-wishing programs may be ineffective or perverted in their implementation. The instrument determines the function… And so, from the depth of despair, everywhere, a dream and a project have surged: to reinvent democracy, to find ways for humans to manage collectively their lives… reconstructing trust as a foundation for human interaction."

— Manuel Castells, Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age [2]

Key Resources

• The Meta-government project: http://www.metagovernment.org/wiki/Map

Key Articles

• #mustread: Can the Internet democratise capitalism?. By Yanis Varoufakis.

Key Books

• * Book: Democratizing Democracy: Beyond the Liberal Democratic Canon (Reinventing Social Emancipation) Paperback. by Boaventura De Sousa. Verso, 2007.

Key Conferences

• 2014 conferences and events covering the intersection of technology and civic engagement, public participation, dialogue and deliberation, conflict resolution, open government and related areas. [3]

Key Organizations

New democracy Organizations and initiatives [4]

• The Jefferson Center St. Paul, MN, has conducted Citizen Juries since 1974 and is one of the oldest such organizations. [5]

• newDemocracy Foundation Royal Exchange, Australia, is a non-profit with the aim of promoting deliberative and participatory democracy, especially through the use of sortition [6]

• The Co-Intelligence Institute Eugene, OR, brainchild of Tom Atlee an advocate of deliberative, participatory democracy through the use of citizen panels and sortition. [7]

• Sortition 2013 An e-petition started by Adam Scarborough in Scotland, with the aim of instituting a (semi)direct democracy through sortition. [8]

• G1000 An experiment tried in 2011-2012 in Belgium with a Ctitizens’ Summit and Citizens’ Panels all using sortition to “do better than politicians” [9]

• Plan C Is Etienne Chouard’s platform of sortition, constitutional reform, and referenda to create “real democracy” in France [10]

• Ordinary People Is a UK political party organized with the aim of instituting a Citizens Parliament [11]

Look for updates via http://equalitybylot.wordpress.com/organizations-and-initiatives/