Citizen Representatives
Self-authorized representation provides a possible frame for understanding the rapid evolution of what we call, following Warren (2008), “citizen representatives” (Rowe &Frewer 2000, Brown 2006). These forms involve nonelected, formally designed venues into which citizens are selected or selfselected for representative purposes. The oldest form of citizen representative is the courtroom jury, which represents the considered judgment of peers. We can now add more recent experiments with citizen juries and panels, advisory councils, stakeholder meetings, lay members of professional review boards, representations at public hearings, public submissions, citizen surveys, deliberative polling, deliberative forums, and focus groups (Pettit 1999b, Fung 2006b). Citizen representatives typically function not as alternatives but rather as supplements to elected representative bodies or administrative bodies in areas of functional weakness, usually related to communication, deliberation, legitimacy, governability, or attentiveness to public norms and common goods (Brown 2006,Warren 2008).