What if we harnessed the collective wisdom of the crowds and delegated democratic leadership to the masses?In her book "Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century", Yale political scientist Hélène Landemore proposes a radically new vision for "what genuine democratic representation means and how we could open up our narrow electoral institutions to ordinary citizens, including via [what she calls] open mini-publics." Drawing from ancient Athenian democracy of the past and the promise of harnessing digital technologies of the future, she joins Bethany and Luigi to talk through this vision of participatory democracy. They discuss how to best harness human nature for agency and impact, ensure transparency to provide accountability in the face of private vested interests, and ultimately its implications for market capitalism.

Featuring David van Reybrouck, Hélène Landemore, and Roger Berkowitz, this podcast explores revitalizing democracy through sortition and citizen power. They discuss the crisis of democracy, the decline in political party membership, and the importance of sortition in promoting democratic exchange. They also examine issues of accountability, inclusion, and self-monitoring in decision-making processes.