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Sortition is the act (or the method) of random selection, particularly the selection of decision makers. Today the only decision-making government positions regularly filled this way are court juries; however, sortition has been used to select the holders of various political and administrative offices, sometimes combined with an element of qualification or election.
Perceived advantages
Classical advocates of sortition, such as Aristotle, held that selection by lot is a more democratic process than election by vote, since sortition is less influenced by money and fame. Contemporary supporters add that sortition allows direct democracy to scale up to today's large populations: by reducing the number of people making a decision from the whole population down to an unbiased sample representative of that population, sortition alleviates the problems of voter fatigue and rational ignorance, which occur in general elections and referenda. Keep in mind that "sortition" as generally contemplated today differs from having two pre-selected candidates draw straws or flip a coin to decide which of the nominees will take executive office. Typically, sortition proposals today are put forward as a method for selecting a large legislative body (such as the U.S. Congress) from among the adult population at large; the numbers involved make the logistics of such "random sampling" a practical approach.
Perceived disadvantages
Selection by sortition has a drawback that resembles one of the philosophical objections to the military draft (selective service): namely, conscription is less respectful of individual autonomy than is a system based on voluntary choice to serve. And if a system of sortition includes a provision authorizing an unwillingly selected individual simply to "opt out," without special justification, the purely random nature of the selection system seems compromised.
Another drawback of sortition is that it does not exactly purport to reflect the "will of the people" regarding who they choose to be their representatives; the roulette wheel chooses, instead of the people. On the other hand, it could be countered that even elections by voting do not really express the "will of the people," and that sortition is demonstrably more likely than voting to pick a representative legislature that closely resembles its constituency. Nevertheless, some would argue that there is a positive value in offering the people the right to express their views on public policy, by means of casting a vote. The argument continues that, because voting expresses the "consent of the governed," voting is able to confer a legitimacy that no random selection device could ever achieve. Yet it appears that there would be nothing inconsistent with the "consent of the governed," if the governed were to express their will by consenting to a system of representative selection by sortition.
Aristotle's appreciation of the power of sortition to reduce the influence of money in politics is surely no less relevant today than it was in ancient times. Critics of American elections in the twenty-first century can point out that, because the process of election by vote has become increasingly subject to manipulation by money and other powerful forces, legislative elections are actually a much less representative system for choosing lawmakers, than selection by lot from among the population.
Examples
- Historical
- The Athenian democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery rather than by election.
- The Doges of Venice were appointed by a lengthy procedure which alternated between sortition and election.
- Modern
- Juries still exist but today are only found in law courts.
- The Canadian province of British Columbia asked a randomly selected group of citizens forming the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform to propose a new electoral system for the provincial government.
- Danish Consensus Conferences give ordinary citizens a chance to make their voices heard in debates on public policy. The selection of citizens is not perfectly random, but still aims to be representitive.
- The South Australian Constitutional Convention was a deliberative poll created to consider changes to the state constitution.
- Some election laws regarding certain offices in the United States provide that, in the case of a tie between the leading candidates, a coin toss (rather than a runoff election) shall be conducted.
- Non-government
- Consensus conferences have been run in the USA by the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization concerned with the social, political, and environmental repercussions of research, science and technology.
- Deliberative polls
- Proposals
- Demarchy is a political system in which many small "citizen's juries" would deliberate and make decisions about public policies.
- Ernest Callenbach and Michael Phillips argue for random selection of the U.S. House of Representitives in their book A Citizen Legislature.
See also
External links
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