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Healthy Democracy

Healthy Democracy developed and institutionalised the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR) — a process in which a randomly selected, representative panel of citizens spends several days intensively studying a ballot measure: hearing from proponents and opponents, questioning experts, and deliberating together. The panel's findings — a balanced statement of key arguments and evidence — are then published in the official voter's guide sent to all voters before the election.

The CIR has been used in Oregon since 2011 and has since been piloted in other US states. It addresses a specific problem: direct democracy (ballot initiatives) gives citizens power to make law, but most voters have neither the time nor the information to evaluate complex measures carefully. The CIR creates a small group that does do that work, and makes their findings available to everyone.

This is a practically important design: it shows how deliberative democracy methods can be integrated into existing electoral infrastructure rather than requiring wholesale institutional redesign.