Belgium’s experiment in permanent forms of deliberative democracy

The Brussels Region of Belgium has followed in the footsteps of the small German-speaking Community in establishing a permanent procedure to engage randomly selected citizens in policy making alongside parliamentarians, who will sit together in deliberative committees. The process creates significant opportunities for popular influence on policy. Considering legal limits to agenda setting and status of the outcome of such processes, their ultimate influence depends on the quality of deliberation between both citizens and parliamentarians