A guest essay by Hélène Landemore was published in the Friday, April 10, 2026, edition of The New York Times. In the hardcopy version, the essay was titled, "Jury Duty For Politics." Online, Landemore's essay was titled, "No Shy Person Left Behind."
Politically speaking, a lot of us are pretty "shy." Here's Landemore's take on the phenomenon (emphasis added):
Over the past two decades, my research on collective intelligence in politics, democratic theory and the design of our institutions shows that the system structurally excludes those I call, in my new book, “the shy.” By the shy I mean not just the natural introverts, but all the people who have internalized the idea that they lack power, that politics is not built for them, and who could never imagine running for office. That is, potentially, most of us, though predictable groups — women, the young and many minorities — are overrepresented in that category.The early-20th-century British writer G.K. Chesterton once offered a striking and unusual metaphor for what democracy should look like. He wrote, “All real democracy is an attempt (like that of a jolly hostess) to bring the shy people out.” What would our democratic institutions look like if we took that metaphor seriously?
One solution to the problem, advanced by Landemore, might be "jury duty for politics." In other words, why shouldn't policy decisions on important issues be made by "citizens' assemblies," comprised of randomly-selected citizens, and with these "citizens' assemblies" being analogous to juries? We trust randomly selected citizens to make life and death decisions in both civil and criminal matters; why not use the same principle with respect to key budget and other policy decisions at every level of our government? The Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College is definitely promoting this idea. Click that link for a discussion.
I don't have anything against "citizens' assemblies," or juries, but my own idea about how to get "shy" citizens back into self-government is by encouraging the shy to "find some friends," and to join or form a friendship group that is centered on accomplishing some prized governmental goal.
I learned how this worked back when we "Saved Lighthouse Field." It's a winning formula! In fact, anyone who is interested in thinking about this might want to attend a "We Have The Power" workshop that I'll be giving on this coming Saturday, April 18th. The workshop is sponsored by Indivisible Santa Cruz County, and Indivisible Pajaro Valley. Below, I am providing you with a copy of the online flyer announcing the workshop, and if you want to attend, just click this link to sign up.
Sounds very interesting! Hope you get a great turn out.
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