Page 52 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

50 A Project of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) For countries with the jury system, the jury tends to be a trusted institution – so random selection taps into that trust. Even without that, people trust random draws in lotteries and sporting competitions as something which is very hard to cheat. Most important is what results: rather than elites and highly activist voices being the sole owners of a decision, random selection brings the casually interested into the decision. Their calm voice sharing what they have learned is almost always missing today. Finding a way through the challenges every community faces involves making complex trade-off decisions that go beyond public opinion and wish-listing. A more informed understanding of the challenges and opportunities can expose what level of tolerance residents have for changes to their local community. The challenge is to hear from the full range of community members, stakeholders and generations, not just the special interest groups or noisy and active voices within the community. When the community sees ‘people like me’ engaging in high level co- decision exercises, they are significantly more likely to trust the complex trade-off decisions that need to be made. This empowers traditional representative political actors to put forward solutions to complex or controversial political problems. It complements their role in a way that improves the democratic process broadly and significantly.