Sortition Foundation

25/09/2026

A new kind of civic participation is taking shape in Hungary. 🇭🇺

In September and October, a civil society organised Community Assembly brings together 50 representatives of Hungarian civil society, selected through a democratic lottery to reflect the diversity of the sector — across regions, location and organisation sizes and areas of activity. (https://www.ujalapon.hu/en/home/)

Over two weekends, participants come together to learn, exchange experiences and deliberate on the future of Hungary’s National Cooperation Fund (NEA), which provides public funding to civil society organisations – and has been doing that in a very distorted way between 2010 and 2026. Their task is to develop recommendations for making the system more transparent, fair and responsive to the needs of civil society.

Sortition Foundation was supporting the process with its expertise in democratic lotteries and participant selection, helping ensure that those around the table are not simply the most visible or most powerful voices in the sector, but a diverse group selected through a fair and transparent process.

This is what deliberative democracy can look like in practice: bringing people together who would not necessarily meet otherwise, giving them the time and information to deliberate, and creating space for a wider range of voices to shape collective decisions.

Importantly, the Assembly’s recommendations are being presented to the political actors responsible for this area, creating a direct channel between citizens’ deliberation and those responsible for shaping the future of civil society funding.

A small group, selected fairly, can open up a much bigger conversation about the future of civil society. That’s the power of democratic lotteries.

24/09/2026

Digital Democracy: Bridging Theory and Practice — Vienna, 21–22 September

We were in Vienna this week for the 3rd Conference of the European Network for Digital Democracy, bringing together academics and practitioners from across Europe working on digital technology, democracy and democratic deliberation.

The first day explored digital tools and platforms designed to make participation more inclusive, research on deliberative processes, and how cities are using technology to address participation and inclusion challenges.

The second day took a broader look at technology and democracy, including the growing role of AI.

Sortition Foundation had two contributions.

First, we demonstrated our Open Democratic Lottery Platform, currently under development to support practitioners through different stages of democratic lotteries.

Second, we presented our work on AI-assisted deliberation and a question we think deserves much more attention:

👉 Who should AI deliberation tools learn from?

If AI is going to support democratic deliberation, it should be developed and tested with people who reflect the diversity of the communities it is meant to serve.

A two-step democratic lottery can help create a participant group diverse in demographic, socio-economic and attitudinal terms — while keeping the selection process fair and transparent.

It could also allow AI deliberation tools to be tested in real-life deliberative settings, where people with different backgrounds and perspectives have to listen to one another and work through disagreement.

This becomes especially important when we think about mass deliberation. If deliberation is to reach very large numbers of people, digital and AI-assisted tools may become increasingly important.

The challenge is making sure that technology develops with democracy, rather than simply being added on top of it.

It was great to be part of a conversation bringing researchers and practitioners closer together in Vienna.

18/09/2026

What could a more democratic Greater Manchester look like?

This summer, the campaign for greater public participation in Greater Manchester took some important steps forward.

From a community-led mayoral hustings to the Take Your Seat event, local residents and democracy organisations came together to explore how people could have a more meaningful role in shaping decisions about the future of their region.

There is also evidence of strong public support: polling by the Sortition Foundation and IPPR found that almost 60% of Greater Manchester residents support establishing a citizens’ assembly.

The question now is how this growing interest can translate into lasting opportunities for citizens to participate in regional decision-making.

A fascinating case to follow for anyone interested in citizens’ assemblies and democratic innovation.

👉 Read the full story: https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/greater_democracy_for_greater_manchester

Hundreds of people in Manchester participated in two exciting events we organised over the summer!

10/03/2026

If democracy is to work, ordinary people must have a far stronger voice in the big decisions that shape our future. One way forward would be a Citizens’ Assembly on intergenerational equity, bringing together a representative group of Australians to deliberate on how wealth, opportunity and responsibility should be shared across society.

Sortition Foundation's Co-Head of Democratic Lottery Services in Australia Dr Sonia Randhawa will be speaking at this online event on Saturday
https://actionnetwork.org/events/tax-wealth-not-work-launch-2?source=direct_link&

30/01/2026

Could deliberative democracy solve many of the problems posed by social media companies and AI?

Assemblies can bridge the gap between people being treated as voters and consumers

29/01/2026

We're hiring... Could you be Sortition Foundation's Junior Organiser in Greater Manchester?
https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/hiring_junior_organiser

27/01/2026

What's Andy Burnham's legacy for democracy in Greater Manchester? How about a Citizens' Assembly, bringing together ordinary people from across the region and giving everyone a chance at a seat at the table?

18/12/2025

The corrupting influence of the Ring of Power. Let's replace the House of Lords with a House of Citizens, brought together in fellowship, like a jury. Sign the petition today: www.858.org.uk/house-of-citizens-petition

10/12/2025

At the end of November Sortition Foundation brought together EU-level deliberative democracy practitioners, recruiters, organisers of European Citizens Panels and other deliberative democracy organisations.

The workshop was to assess the current practice of democratic lotteries and collaboratively shape the OpenDLP platform, a tool being developed by the Sortition Foundation, to support recruitment and management of transnational and local Citizens’ Assemblies.

Learn more about this 2-day workshop on our blog.

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