Rethinking Representation and Diversity in Deliberative Minipublics

Abstract

Deliberative minipublics often seek to recruit participants who are representative and diverse. This raises theoretical and practical challenges, because representativeness and diversity can be interpreted in multiple ways and can conflict with one another. We address this issue by proposing a purposive design approach, according to which the appropriate conceptualisations of representativeness and diversity, and thereby recruitment strategies, depend on the deliberative mini-public’s aims. We argue that deliberative minipublics frequently have mixed aims, which can justify hybrid recruitment strategies that reflect distinct senses of representativeness or diversity.