Combined or Opposed? Institutionalization of Sortition and Referendum in Belgian Parliaments

Since the latter half of the 2010s, several Belgian parliaments have initiated the
institutionalization of participatory democratic mechanisms. These initiatives predominantly
rely on deliberative formats in which randomly selected citizens—either exclusively or
alongside elected officials—engage in structured deliberation. A pivotal issue within these
frameworks is the role of broader popular vote mechanisms in linking mini-
publics (deliberative citizen groups) to the maxi-public (the general population). During the
preliminary debates that precede the institutional design of sortition-based systems, the question
of popular consultation and referendums emerges recurrently.
The objective of this study is to analyze the ways in which parliamentarians engage with the
concepts of referendum and popular consultation in the development of participatory processes
grounded in sortition. Do members of parliament perceive sortition and referendums as
mutually exclusive? Do they view voting and deliberation as compatible, and if so, under what
conditions? What legal and institutional constraints affect the implementation of participatory
models that combine deliberative practices with mechanisms of popular vote? The core research
question is thus articulated as follows: how do Belgian parliamentarians mobilize the concept
of referendum in the context of institutionalizing sortition?
This research examines parliamentary activities related to the institutionalization of sortition.
The analysis focuses on two regional legislatures—the Walloon Parliament and the Brussels
Parliament—where advocacy for sortition-based systems has been ongoing for approximately
a decade. Both parliaments have had, since 2014, the legal capacity to organize popular
consultations, a non-binding form of referendum. At the federal level, the study investigates the
work of the House of Representatives and the Senate beginning in 2013, when the first proposal
was introduced to incorporate random selection into the reform of representative institutions.
This analytical framework enables a deeper understanding of the democratic imaginaries
articulated by parliamentarians who promote participatory mechanisms. By comparing
parliamentary debates and proposals across different legislative bodies, the study identifies how
the idea of referendums is mobilized—whether to support, delay, or contest the
institutionalization of sortition. Ultimately, these findings contribute to a broader reflection on
the concept of populism and its evolving relationship with democratic practice.