Sortition

In governance, sortition is the selection of public officials or jurors at random, i.e. by lottery, in order to obtain a representative sample.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy.^[5]^[6] Sortition is often classified as a method for both direct democracy and deliberative democracy.

Today sortition is commonly used to select prospective jurors in common-law systems. What has changed in recent years is the increased number of citizen groups with political advisory power,^[7]^[8] along with calls for making sortition more consequential than elections, as it was in Athens, Venice, and Florence.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]

^ Engelstad, Fredrik (1989). "The assignment of political office by lot". Social Science Information. 28 (1): 23–50. doi:10.1177/053901889028001002. S2CID 144352457.
^ OECD (2020). Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. doi:10.1787/339306da-en. ISBN 9789264837621. S2CID 243747068.
^ Landemore, Hélène (January 15, 2010). Deliberation, Representation, and the Epistemic Function of Parliamentary Assemblies: a Burkean Argument in Favor of Descriptive Representation (PDF). International Conference on "Democracy as Idea and Practice", University of Oslo, Oslo January 13–15, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 8, 2013.
^ Shah, Alpa (2021). "What if We Selected our Leaders by Lottery? Democracy by Sortition, Liberal Elections and Communist Revolutionaries". Development and Change. 52 (4): 687–728. doi:10.1111/dech.12651.
^ Headlam, James Wycliffe (1891). Election by Lot at Athens. The University Press. p. 12.
^ Cambiano, Giuseppe (2020). "Piccola archeologia del sorteggio". Teoria Politica (in Italian) (10): 103–121.
^ Flanigan, Bailey; Gölz, Paul; Gupta, Anupam; Hennig, Brett; Procaccia, Ariel D. (2021). "Fair algorithms for selecting citizens' assemblies". Nature. 596 (7873): 548–552. Bibcode:2021Natur.596..548F. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03788-6. PMC 8387237. PMID 34349266.
^ Fishkin, James (2009). When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy & Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199604432.
^ Ostfeld, Jacob (November 19, 2020). "The Case for Sortition in America". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
^ Reybrouck, David Van (June 29, 2016). "Why elections are bad for democracy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
^ Rieg, Timo; Translated from German by Catherine McLean (September 8, 2015). "Why a citizen's parliament chosen by lot would be 'perfect'". SWI swissinfo.ch (Op-ed.). Retrieved May 24, 2023.
^ Wolfson, Arthur M. (1899). "The Ballot and Other Forms of Voting in the Italian Communes". The American Historical Review. 5 (1): 1–21. doi:10.2307/1832957. JSTOR 1832957.

[1] Engelstad, Fredrik (1989). "The assignment of political office by lot". Social Science Information. 28 (1): 23–50. doi:10.1177/053901889028001002. S2CID 144352457.

[OECD_2020-2] OECD (2020). Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. doi:10.1787/339306da-en. ISBN 9789264837621. S2CID 243747068.

[3] Landemore, Hélène (January 15, 2010). Deliberation, Representation, and the Epistemic Function of Parliamentary Assemblies: a Burkean Argument in Favor of Descriptive Representation (PDF). International Conference on "Democracy as Idea and Practice", University of Oslo, Oslo January 13–15, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 8, 2013.

[4] Shah, Alpa (2021). "What if We Selected our Leaders by Lottery? Democracy by Sortition, Liberal Elections and Communist Revolutionaries". Development and Change. 52 (4): 687–728. doi:10.1111/dech.12651.

[5] Headlam, James Wycliffe (1891). Election by Lot at Athens. The University Press. p. 12.

[6] Cambiano, Giuseppe (2020). "Piccola archeologia del sorteggio". Teoria Politica (in Italian) (10): 103–121.

[7] Flanigan, Bailey; Gölz, Paul; Gupta, Anupam; Hennig, Brett; Procaccia, Ariel D. (2021). "Fair algorithms for selecting citizens' assemblies". Nature. 596 (7873): 548–552. Bibcode:2021Natur.596..548F. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03788-6. PMC 8387237. PMID 34349266.

[8] Fishkin, James (2009). When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy & Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199604432.

[9] Ostfeld, Jacob (November 19, 2020). "The Case for Sortition in America". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved February 24, 2023.

[10] Reybrouck, David Van (June 29, 2016). "Why elections are bad for democracy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 24, 2023.

[11] Rieg, Timo; Translated from German by Catherine McLean (September 8, 2015). "Why a citizen's parliament chosen by lot would be 'perfect'". SWI swissinfo.ch (Op-ed.). Retrieved May 24, 2023.

[12] Wolfson, Arthur M. (1899). "The Ballot and Other Forms of Voting in the Italian Communes". The American Historical Review. 5 (1): 1–21. doi:10.2307/1832957. JSTOR 1832957.

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