Although these representative forms are typically categorized as participatory democracy, direct democracy, or citizen engagement, these terms are misleading because only a tiny percentage of citizens are actively involved in any given venue. The more important properties of these forms of citizen participation, we think, are representative. A few citizens actively serve as representatives of other citizens. What is most interesting about these new forms is that they have the potential to represent discursively considered opinions and voices that are not necessarily represented either through electoral democracy or through the aggregate of self-authorized representatives in the public sphere. Fung (2003) highlights this unique representative function by referring to these new forms as “minipublics.” They have the potential to capture opinions and voices that are not heard, not necessarily because of group-based disadvantage, but because the sum total of advocacy will often fail to represent unorganized interests and values. Minipublics can also represent considered public opinion, particularly opinions representing compromises and trade-offs in complex or fractious issue areas. Under the standard model, the work of deliberatively crafting policies belongs to the formal political institutions—and these institutions find it increasingly difficult to represent considered, legitimate solutions before the public. Under the citizen representative model, venues are designed, as it were, to generate considered opinion. Deliberative polls, for example, involve a random selection of citizens who are convened for a weekend to discuss an issue such as health care policy. During this time, participants learn about the issue, deliberate, and then register their opinions (Fishkin 1995). The results should represent what informed public opinion would look like, were citizens to organize, become informed, and deliberate. Presumably, the results are not simply counterfactual; they represent a statistically representative snapshot of the existing but latent preferences of citizens—preferences that power holders seeking to represent “the people” should need to know.