Co-Voting Democracy

Abstract

We outline a new voting procedure for representative democracies. This procedure should be used for important decisions only and consists of two voting rounds: a randomly-selected subset of the citizens is awarded a one-time voting right. The parliament also votes, and the two decisions are weighted according to a pre-defined key. The final decision is implemented. As this procedure gives the society – represented by the randomly-chosen subset – a better say for important decisions, the citizens might be more willing to accept the consequences of these decisions.

Keywords: Co-Voting, Representative Democracy, Citizen Participation, Legitimacy of Democracy, Assessment Voting

JEL Classification: D7, D8