US midterms: A landslide for the less unpopular party

Posted on November 8, 2026 by Yoram Gat

The Democratic party was the landslide winner in the elections that took place on Nov. 3rd. in the U.S. In view of that it is unsurprising that exit polls show that the Republican party is now seen very unfavorably by the voters. 60% of the voters see the Republican party unfavorably, against 40% who see it favorably. It is important to note, however, that the Democrats, despite winning the total congressional vote by 12%, the largest margin since 1976, are also seen more unfavorably than favorably, just less so than the Republicans: 52% of Americans see the Democratic party unfavorably against 47% who see it favorably.

The frequent electoral defeats of ruling parties in the West, a phenomenon that is often celebrated as an indication of the democratic character of Western regimes, are in fact a testimony to the lack of this character. Voters are repeatedly frustrated with the policies pursued by their elected governments, express their frustration in the ballot box by electing officials from alternative parties, parties (and often officials) whom they removed from power only recently in a previous cycle of frustration, only to be, unsurprisingly, frustrated again within a short while. Indeed, contrary to electoralist dogma, long term popular satisfaction with an electoral regime can be expected to lead to long stretches of electoral successes for a single party or a stable coalition of parties – the very same long stretches that are regularly interpreted by Western political scientists as an indication of “authoritarianism”.

Filed under: Academia, Elections | Leave a comment »

NPR / Planet Money Coverage of Sortition & Citizens’ Assembly in Connecticut

Posted on November 7, 2026 by johnhuang865

The NPR Planet Money podcast did a recent episode on Citizens’ Assemblies, featuring Helene Landemore. You can find the episode below. 100 citizens formed a Citizens’ Assembly in Connecticut to discuss tax policy.

Politicians in Connecticut couldn’t fix taxes. So they asked 100 citizens to try : Planet Money : NPR

The narrative is typical of most coverage of Citizens’ Assemblies around the world. Citizens get together, are able to agree on otherwise politically controversial policies, but are ultimately stymied by political manipulation.You can find the citizen recommendations here: Final Report — Connecticut Citizens’ Assembly. Some big ticket agreements are an income tax on millionaires, and increasing revenue through tolls.

Filed under: Academia, Applications, Sortition | 3 Comments »

Surely, in 2026, we can come up with a better way

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Yoram Gat

norfolktoday.ca reports:

Brady calls for an end to random draws in tied municipal elections

Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady is calling on the Ontario government to change how tied municipal elections are resolved, arguing that choosing a winner by random draw undermines confidence in the democratic process.
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Filed under: Elections, Press | 10 Comments »

International Network of Sortition Advocates presents

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Oliver Milne

From Idea to Event: Building Local Engagement about Sortition

How do you turn an interest in sortition into events that bring people together? Benny Nissen shares his experiences with Levende Demokrati Næstved (LDN), a local city democracy association, and organising Demokratidag in Næstved, Denmark. He discusses building partnerships, securing funding and attracting an audience, alongside the challenges of organising activities through voluntary engagement. The presentation also explores how a broader democracy event can create opportunities to introduce sortition to new audiences, with reflections on what worked, what proved difficult and what others might learn from the experience.

Benny Nissen is a Danish entrepreneur and sortition advocate with a particular interest in constitutions based on sortition. His experience as a lay judge and juror helped shape his interest in the role ordinary citizens can play in public decision-making. He is active in the local organisation Levende Demokrati Næstved and the International Network of Sortition Advocates (INSA), and is the author of Sortition as a Supplement to Danish Democracy. https://sortition.dk/download/sbt-en.pdf

Date: Saturday, 14 November 2026 • Sunday, 15 February – Australia & Asia

Time: 17:00-18:00 London • 18:00-19:00 Europe/Copenhagen • 12:00 Noon-1:00 PM US Eastern • 9:00-10 AM US Pacific

Location: Google Meet

To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/zgm-qviu-wkp
Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +353 1 571 2050 and enter this PIN: 951 174 948#
To view more phone numbers, click this link: https://tel.meet/zgm-qviu-wkp?hs=5

INSA is a volunteer organisation aimed at connecting pro-sortition academics, advocates, and activists around the world, to share resources & tactics and advance the theoretical understanding and practice of sortition.

You are invited to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/6sgnrphp6w.

Filed under: meeting, Sortition | Leave a comment »

Greenwald on the aggression of electoralist states

Posted on October 23, 2026 by Yoram Gat

Glenn Greenwald was recently a guest on Piers Morgan’s show (appearing in a panel together with other guests). In a recap video Greenwald collects excerpts of his from the show. The collection forms a condemnation of the West’s rich record of aggression in the 21st century. Interestingly, Greenwald ties this record to the electoralist system.

Greenwald repeatedly makes the point that the consistent U.S. and Western aggression toward their enemies is the result of an aggressive consensus among Western elites, so that the public cannot vote to stop it, since all credible choices on the ballot support it. In fact, Greenwald points out, the public does wish to stop the diversion of resources into the war efforts, and since none of the mainstream parties offers this option, formerly fringe parties are gaining power at the expense of mainstream parties.
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Filed under: Academia, Effects of electoralism, Elections, Press, video | 32 Comments »

Lottocracy on The Shape of the World podcast

Posted on October 22, 2026 by Yoram Gat

The Shape of the World is a podcast hosted by Jill Riddell, that describes itself as “exploring the intricate relationships between cities, nature, and the people who shape them”.

A recent episode features Alex Guerrero discussing “Lottocracy”.

What if your upstairs neighbor, your cousin, or the bartender down the street were chosen by lottery to represent you in government? Author and political philosopher Alex Guerrero believes this radical idea, known as lottocracy, is a better alternative than voting.

The idea is that instead of an individual announcing they want to be a leader and then launching a campaign to become one, our representatives in government would be chosen by random selection. To some degree, the concept is already utilized; the United States uses random selection to assemble its juries for legal trials, and in Europe and Canada, groups known as “citizens’ assemblies” are assembled by random selection to discuss and make recommendations on a particular issue.

In this episode, Alex examines the benefits and drawbacks of lottery-based democracy. But in general, he is a huge proponent of the concept, and he and others are working hard to make it a reality. He is convinced it will reduce the influence of money in politics and reduce corruption. It could ease gridlock and produce fairer and sounder policies. And it could make more inclusive political systems. But what would this process actually look like? And could it make the shape of the world as we know it even better?

Filed under: Academia, Books, Press, Sortition | 2 Comments »

I just found 200 books on sortition!

Posted on October 20, 2026 by Carl Lundgren

In the past three months, as preparation for a book I plan to write, I have been researching books, papers, and websites on random selection of citizens for political purposes (“sortition”). I have had an interest in this since the 1970s, but as of 1985 I knew of only one book and a few journal or magazine writings on the subject – slim pickings. Nor had I run into any additional writings during the next 40 years, despite what I regarded as the general usefulness of this idea for purposes of political reform.

The Internet has become a very efficient way to search for even obscure items. As I set out on my 2026 research, I had little reason to suppose that much of anything additional was likely to have been written on the subject, but I could not presume that there was none. To my surprise, I found numerous articles, books, and webpages on sortition. I manually developed a list of books related to sortition. After I reached 50 or so books, I realized I needed to keep track of these books in a spreadsheet. I decided to continue searching for more books. Eventually I found about 200 books (including several dissertations). The resulting spreadsheet can be found here.

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Filed under: Books, Deliberation, History, Sortition | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Troesoyer on the Let’s Make Them Pay podcast (part 4/4)

Posted on October 13, 2026 by Yoram Gat

Previous parts: 1, 2, 3.

7. “Idiocracy” (39:20). Bennett brings up the matter of people expressing a lack of trust in the knowledge or intelligence of their fellow citizens and asks Troesoyer if he has “any anxiety over handing normal people power over their lives”. Troesoyer responds that sortition would force society to improve its system of education (presumably so that people have more knowledge and are more intelligent).

This response is problematic because it in effect accepts the classical elitist notion that people’s ability to rule depends on their education. The correct response to Bennett’s question appears to me to be: “Any change involves risk, so some anxiety is natural. But I support democracy and that means that I believe that people should have power over their lives. Others may surely believe otherwise, but then they are opponents of democracy, and they should acknowledge that”.
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Filed under: Elections, Sortition, video | 29 Comments »

Sortition to become part of Harvard’s senate selection bylaws

Posted on October 12, 2026 by Yoram Gat

The Harvard Crimson reports:

Planning Body Releases Final Bylaws for Harvard Faculty Senate After Input From University Leadership

Harvard’s faculty senate planning body released a final set of proposed bylaws for the group Thursday, outlining a largely advisory body that would work closely with top Harvard officials to address University-wide issues.

The new bylaws, officially endorsed by Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 and Provost John F. Manning ’82 in an accompanying letter, appear to address concerns from administrators about the body’s makeup and interactions with existing governance structures.

A new stipulation requires all senators to be elected via an approval voting process, in which voters select candidates they consider acceptable — a change the planning body said “guards against factional capture.” The final bylaws also hold that if fewer than 60 percent of eligible faculty do not vote, the election will be invalid and the seats filled by sortition.

“To avoid the common issue of low-turnout elections that make many faculty senates unrepresentative, the new bylaws take concrete steps to help ensure that Senators broadly represent their respective Faculties,” Garber and Manning wrote in the letter.

Filed under: Applications, Press, Sortition | 5 Comments »

An allotted evaluation panel in Belgium

Posted on October 10, 2026 by Yoram Gat

Bruxelles Today reports that the municipality of Auderghem in Belgium is setting up an allotted Citizen Evaluation Council (CEC) that is going to produce a yearly evaluation of the government of the municipality. This has the potential of being a transformative application of sortition – much more impactful than the customary single-issue bodies and the “grand plan” bodies. By evaluating the actual actions of the government as a whole, rather than being assigned limited roles by the elected, or making abstract and inevitably vague plans, the evaluation council can become a meaningful channel for democratic power challenging the oligarchical electoral power. Much of course depends on the details – authority, resources, media attention – but the direction is very promising, despite not having any binding decision making power. This could be a good way for estabilishing the representativity of allotted bodies and increasing their visibility and credibility, as an initial step toward a full sortition-based system. If the population perceives the evaluations produced as valid and useful, then the next step – allowing the CEC to fire and hire the officials they are evaluating in order to promote the same values and interests the CEC uses when producing its evaluation – seems not that far fetched.

Auto-translated excepts:

The municipality of Auderghem is launching a Citizen Evaluation Council (CEC) composed of 33 residents selected by lot from among the applicants. Its mission will be to independently evaluate the municipality’s actions on an annual basis, the municipality stated.

Three criteria for evaluating the municipality

Each year, the Council will review municipal actions based on three criteria: effectiveness—specifically, what was or was not achieved and why; the relevance of decisions regarding residents’ needs; and the coherence between various projects. The method draws on an OECD framework, adapted by the ULB Policy Lab to make it accessible to residents who are not public policy evaluation specialists.
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Filed under: Applications, Press, Sortition | 10 Comments »

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