The basic idea of democracy by sortition is equality of opportunity. All residents of a municipality, a federal state, the Federal Republic of Germany or the European Union are always automatically in the lottery pot from a set age. All people in the lottery pot have the same chance of being randomly selected for a citizens' assembly. In principle, age, gender, education, income or origin have no influence on the chance of being selected.
However, since people are very different, this also applies to their chances of participation. Some have enough time, knowledge and money to be able to afford political involvement. Those who want to be actively involved in parties, associations, clubs or trade unions need time to do so. If you want to have a say, you have to have knowledge about the topic. And you need money to be able to pay membership fees, the beer at the meeting in the pub or the participation fees for political seminars, for example.
These resources are not available to all people equally. The lower the level of education, the lower the resources available for political engagement. Quite a few people also work irregular shifts, including nights and weekends, which makes regular participation in political events difficult. Other people have people in need of care or small children to look after, which greatly reduces their free time. Nevertheless, these people should also be able to participate in citizens' assemblies, as their life experiences and perspectives are otherwise insufficiently or not at all taken into account in the deliberations and decisions. Citizens' assemblies with their short procedures make the participation of such people possible.
The higher people's educational qualifications, the higher their income on average. They have a good general knowledge due to their educational background and a high political self-confidence due to their life path. More often than other population groups, they have had the experience of being heard and taken seriously. Perhaps they have even achieved something politically at some point and were thus able to experience themselves as self-effective. The high income also allows for shorter working hours and thus more free time. It is also easier to finance childcare in order to be able to participate in political events. That is why you find such people particularly often in politics.
People who are provided with better participation opportunities in this way also apply to participate in citizens' assemblies far beyond their share of the population. For example, 71.5 per cent of those randomly selected for the citizens' assembly "Nutrition in Transition" applied to participate in the citizens' assembly with a university or technical college degree. However, their share of the population at the time of the selection was only 26.3 per cent. Due to the stratified sortition procedure, people with these educational qualifications received their statistically entitled share as well as people with other educational qualifications.
The lower the level of education, the lower the resources available for political engagement. Quite a few people also work irregular shifts, including nights and weekends, which makes regular participation in political events difficult. Other people have people in need of care or small children to look after, which greatly reduces their free time. Nevertheless, these people should also be able to participate in citizens' assemblies, as their life experiences and perspectives are otherwise insufficiently or not at all taken into account in the deliberations and decisions. Citizens' assemblies with their short procedures make the participation of such people possible.
Different opportunities for participation are noticeable in other participation procedures, but also in parties and parliaments. For example, according to official figures, 81 per cent of the Bundestag elected in 2025 consist of people with university degrees.
With the 2025 Bundestag elections, the proportion of workers in the Bundestag has fallen to just three per cent. In 1949, in the first German Bundestag, 18 per cent of MPs were still workers. In contrast, one in five members of parliament today is a lawyer, closely followed by people with business professions at 17 per cent. In contrast, the long list of MPs includes only two butchers, two roofers and a steelworker.
Not even one in three members of parliament is female; their share has fallen to 32.5 per cent. The proportion of young women and men has risen slightly to 7.5 per cent. However, it still lags well behind the population share of 13 per cent.
There are still comparatively few migrants in the 21st German Bundestag. According to research by Mediendienst Integration, at least 73 MPs have a migration background, which corresponds to 11.6 per cent. These are people who did not have German citizenship at birth or had at least one parent who did not. They are also underrepresented: They make up almost 30 per cent of the population and 14.4 per cent of those eligible to vote.
The same applies to the municipal level. According to a study published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in 2023, 69 per cent of office and mandate holders in large cities have a university degree, while this only applies to around 37 per cent of the metropolitan population. With a population share of 51 per cent, women make up only 39 per cent of office-holders and elected representatives in the major German cities. People with a migration background are only represented politically by 13 per cent in the municipalities studied. Their share of the total population, on the other hand, is almost 30 per cent.
In citizen participation processes, one predominantly encounters the "usual suspects": older male academics. They can and should be politically active, but they should not dominate parliaments and participation procedures, because they cannot speak for all people.
The quota system used in many citizens' assemblies is intended to prevent such a composition of such mini publics. Therefore, the so-called "stratified lottery" ensures that men and women are equally represented. The age distribution in the population is also represented. The same applies to the level of education and often also to the population group of people with a migration background (immigrated to Germany themselves or with at least one immigrant parent).
In citizens' assemblies in other countries, the organizers also look at the income, physical disabilities or ethnic affiliation of the assembly applicants. This ensures the adequate participation of people with low incomes, disabilities and people of colour.
Candidates' political stance on climate change and climate protection, for example, may also be asked. After a comparison with representative surveys on the respective topic, groups are formed in the citizens' assembly with a proportion in the citizens' assembly that corresponds to the proportion of people with the corresponding political stance in the population.
In the stratified sortition procedure, the potential participants of a citizens' assembly are randomly selected from the population registers and asked about characteristics that are important for participation, such as highest educational attainment and migration background. The citizens' assembly is made up of those who have applied to participate and whose characteristics such as age, gender, education, place of residence, migration background, etc. correspond as closely as possible to the characteristics sought. The participants are therefore not "hand-picked", as some critics of citizens' assemblies claim.
In order to ensure that all population groups that are particularly desired can be adequately involved in a citizens' assemblies, one invites a multiple of the number of participants that is actually necessary. In this way, sufficient applications are also received from those population groups that rarely participate in participation processes. A reflection of the population is created.
