The Travelling Assembly

Who is who...in the Democratic Odyssey’s “Peoples’ Assembly for Europe”?

An Assembly member’s guide to our composition, sortition and recruitment

You have been selected to participate in the Democratic Odyssey Assembly? The first question you might be asking is: Why me? Who are We?

To say it simply. You are one of many who, one way or another, have been asked to take part in a very special mission and who have said: yes we can!

The mission: To embark on the Democratic Odyssey, a journey of collective exploration at the frontier of 21st century democracy.

The first step: Taking part in the very first meeting of the Assembly in Athens.

The composition of the assembly is summarised in the slide below, but beware! This is constantly evolving according to changing constraints and feedback.

Explaining our 8 pools

Transnational Sphere

1. Members are randomly selected across all of the EU through civic lotteries and then knocking on doors to elicit interest of people who may have heard of civic lottery. In a second stage, members are selected from this large pool to ensure a representative balance between genders, age, education and socioeconomic background and countries (this is called “stratification” and requires statistics!)

2. Members are randomly selected from a pool of citizens who had already said yes to a previous EU panel but were not ultimately selected in the second stage. Now they have a chance to participate through the Odyssey.

3. Members are randomly selected from a pool of alumni citizens who have already been part of a panel or assembly based on the same civic lottery and now volunteer to take part in the Odyssey. 

4. Members are randomly selected from a list of members of transnational civil society organizations.

Translocal Sphere

5. Members are randomly selected from all Greek residents in Athens and Attica through door knocking and electronic contacts. They will be the host residents welcoming non-locals

6. Members are randomly selected from a pool of non-Greek Europeans living locally.

7. Members are randomly selected from a pool of non-Europeans living locally, who can be migrant workers, expats, or refugees.

8. Members are randomly selected from a list of self-selected members of local civil society organisations.

To obtain the most diverse assembly possible, part of this assembly (Pools 1, 2 and 5, 6) is recruited by two foundations (Sortition foundation in Budapest for the transnational sphere, and QED foundation in Athens for the local sphere) according to the highest standards in the field, also supported by the Democratic Odyssey’s core team.

For more insights into the composition of the Assembly and our methodology behind it, please consult a more comprehensive breakdown here.