The French adopted a US style closed primary system for their recent choice of candidates for the Presidential election. The Socialists have chosen Segolene Royal as their candidate. One of the her ideas that was floated was for Citizen Juries to monitor Parliament.

Unfortunately I cannot find the primary source of when she said it, or of a policy paper that espouses it, yet as second-hand news it is everywhere. For instance this popped up in The Economist;

Ms Royal has punctuated her performances with some bizarre suggestions and evasions. One idea was that members of parliament should be made answerable to "citizens' juries".

I don't think it is bizarre, it has been used with good results in Canadian British Columbia and South Australia. I always find it unusual that people would place so much faith in their political leaders in representative government. Politicians political passions for public good are constantly being tempered by party-machine passions - sometimes absolutely. Citizen Juries or citizen councils are more often the best ones to temper the party-machine passions or arbitrary governance with a dose of public weal.

This is not a new technology either, much of common law's outcomes are predicated on the ideal of being tried by a jury of peers. Our judicial system is heavily dependent on a working jury system and the legal wisdom of average people. We have enough data to show that a jury system works in the legal system, why not in the legislative arena as well.

Then again, I do not know what Royal is proposing, so cannot comment either way on what form check and balance or function she sees that Citizen Juries as taking.

More Reading on Segolene royal

• Segolene Royal
• France
• French Citizen Juries
• Royal's Participative Democracy