Equality by lot

Found the following blog post recently: Random Politics and the Lords of Chaocracy.

It recommends some system called “Chaocracy,” which is discussed by Pete Carroll in a book called Psybermagick.

Apparently, “Chaocracy” is very similar to Burnheim’s “Demarchy,” although I doubt Burnheim would see his system as having much to do with chaos.

[I found the excerpt below in the Amazon preview of the book, -Yoram]

If we have any faith in the stochastic principles to which we owe our very reality and existence, then we should perhaps consider Chaocracy.

Let us select a legislative body by purely random means. Let us reward those so chosen with salaries which put them beyond corruption. Let us replace one half of those chosen by random means every few years.

A chaocracy will contain representative proportions of all ages and sexes.

A chaocracy will have the assistance of a civil service to advise it.

A chaocracy will free us from the conflict of party political ideology with conscience, and free us from the distasteful business of casting our votes amongst professional liars.

Let a chaocratic government debate openly but legislate by secret ballot.

Let the outcome of such vote act as the head of state rather than invest one person with this power.

We trust people’s lives to randomly selected juries as the only fair method; should we use any less fair method for a nation or a planet?

Filed under: Proposals, Sortition |