The Sortition Option

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Sortition, or selection by lot, from the Latin sortiri, has a long history of use, going back to the ancient Solonian Constitution of Athens, and serving the Republic of Venice well for 760 years. Rule by lot is called demarchy or klerostocracy, from the Greek kleros (κλερος), casting lots. Today it is mainly used for the selection of juries, but the abuses of the electoral process, resulting from the need for candidates to raise large sums of money from donors who expect something in return, and the politicization of the appointment or election of judges, makes it appropriate to consider amending constitutions and laws to make more use of various forms of sortititon.

Writings

1.    Let's Toss for It: A Surprising Curb on Political Greed, by Sigmund Knag, Independent Review, Vol. 3 No. 2, Autumn 1998.
2.  Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, Vol. I, Letter XIX: Venice, by John Adams, 1787. History of the Republic of Venice and their use of sortition in a constitutional framework.
3.       How to Pick Our Leaders: Should We Try a Lottery?, by Dick Dougherty, The Independent Institute, January 7, 1999.
4.       Solon and Sortition, article on "Archon", The Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Ed., Vol. II, 1910.
5.   The Athenian Constitution: Government by Jury and Referendum, by Roderick T. Long, Autumn 1996, published by the Libertarian Nation Foundation.
6.   Choosing Representatives by Lottery Voting, Akhil Reed Amar, 93 Yale L.J. 1283, June, 1984.
7.  Lottery Voting: A Thought Experiment, Akhil Reed Amar (Yale Law school, 1-1-1995) — Proposes election by random drawing of ballots cast in a district.
8.   Demarchy: A democratic alternative to electoral politics, by Brian Martin, bmartin@uow.edu.au, August 1989; revised January 2001.
9.       Sortition, Wikipedia article.
10.       Democracy without Elections, by Brian Martin, Social Anarchism 21 (1995-1996).
11.   An Essay on Democracy, by Peter Landry, peteblu@blupete.com, May, 1997. Re-edit:April, 1999.
12.   Going Bezirke, review in Reason by John McClaughry of A Solving Problems Without Large Government: Devolution, Fairness, and Equality, by George W. Liebmann, Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2000.
13.   What could the social structure of anarchy look like?.
14.   Transformational Politics, by Tom Atlee, 1991, revised Sept. 1999.
15.  A Citizen Legislature, by Ernest Callenbach and Michael Phillips, In Context 11 (Autumn 1985).
16.  A Citizen Legislature, by Ernest Callenbach and Michael Phillips, Berkeley, California: Banyan Tree Books, 1985.
17.  A Model for a Tiered Constituent Assembly, Proposed Models for a Canadian Constituent Assembly, by Bill Longstaff (1997).
18.  Citizens' Juries in Great Britain, by Jen Romslo and Sascha Pohl. Report of the British experience with citizens' juries.
19.  Toward Deliberative Institutions: Lesson from Citizens' Juries, by Graham Smith and Corinne Wales.
20.  Citizens´ Constitution of Czech Republic (Draft No 1, 2002) — Proposes "citizens commissions" selected by sortition as a key governing component.
21.   Sortition for Judges, by Jon Roland.
22.   Laws, Plato (~348 BCE) — Model laws for a republic, including sortition for judges and other officials.
23.   Judging Athenian Dramatic Competitions — Analysis of ancient Athenian practices for selecting winners.
24.  Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Book 6, Chap. 10, by William Godwin. Not favorable to sortition, but not fond of balloting, either.
25.  Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke, 1790. Argues against sortition, for representation based on merit and property.

Organizations

•  The Center for Deliberative Democracy — Promotes the study of sortition and related alternatives to voting.
•  The Jefferson Center — Promotes the use of citizens juries to advise elected officials on public policy matters.
•  Sortition: Society for Democracy including Random Selection (SDRS) — Promote random selection as a complementary method of election.
•  Allot: People for a more democratic House of Lords — Propose selection of UK House of Lords by sortition.
•  Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform — The Assembly is an independent, non-partisan assembly of 158 randomly selected British Columbians.

Blogs

•  Equality by Lot — Blog of the Kleroterians.

Also see Jury Reform and Public Choice.

And
Sortition at sortition.net
Proposals at jonroland.net and Proposed Amendments at amend-it.org