Citizens' juries and deliberative democracy

In the face of widespread dissatisfaction with contemporary democratic prac tice, there has been growing interest in theories of deliberative democracy . However theorists have often failed to sufficiently address the question of institutional design. This paper argues that recent experiments with cit izens' juries should be of interest to deliberative democrats. The practice of citizens' juries is considered in light of three deliberative democrati c criteria: inclusivity, deliberation and citizenship. It is argued that ci tizens' juries offer important insights into how democratic deliberation co uld be institutionalized in contemporary political decision-making processe s.