Based on 91 interviews conducted with French-speaking Belgian members of Parliament (MPs), we analyze in this article the perceptions of MPs about participatory democracy and deliberative mini-publics. We first show that these discourses fundamentally depend on the perceptions that MPs have about the competency of ordinary citizens. We then identify three ideal-typical discourses: the decision-making discourse, the consultative discourse, and the elitist discourse. Finally, we show that the positions of MPs on participatory democracy and mini-publics depend both on their party ideology and their more or less marginal position in the political arena.