Oscillating Between Representation and Participation in Deliberative Fora and the Question of Legitimacy: Can ‘Hybrid Representative Democracy’ be the Remedy?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper revisits the core concept of representation in light of democratic innovations and more specifically in the context of minipublics. We disentangle how representativeness is currently addressed within the minipublics’ literature and provide an in-depth conceptual analysis of how emerging modes of representation and participation can be reconciled with(in) traditional norms of representative democracy. This paper scrutinises and emphasises issues concerning legitimacy and representation in minipublics and the potential of scaling up their outcomes to the larger public. Acknowledging that neither election nor sortition can fully satisfy all democratic values we propose an interpretive path and a framework of a ‘hybrid’ representative democracy that can accommodate a multi modal representation which combines both electoral and sortition driven representation and can shift the conceptual boundaries of representation in modern democracies.