Equality by lot

The following two letters were sent by postal mail to President Obama at the beginning of his first term as President of the US.

Until now no response.

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First letter:

January 23 2009

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

The reason why I am contacting you is, that I would like to bring to your attention the following important issue (at least in my opinion). The issue is about the establishment of a World Parliament by means of the principle of Lottocracy. The idea of Lottocracy is described in detail in the chapter: A Concept for Government in the book: The World Solution for World Problems. However, the text of that chapter is also available on my homepage. You can go directly to:

http://www.socsci.kun.nl/~advdv/Lottocracy.html

The book: The World Solution for World Problems is available as an electronic book on:

http://www.picarta.nl/

However, you can find the book directly on:

http://www.socsci.kun.nl/~advdv/leonbook/leonbook.html

The book (ISBN 90-9002592-8) has originally been published as a hard copy and is, for example, available in The Library of Congress in Washington DC.

The reason, why I would like you to know about this, is, that in my opinion the actual establishment of such a World Parliament is only possible if it is done by the United States, naturally, in dialogue with all other countries of the planet. Again in my opinion the United States is the only nation in this world which has the means, the ability and the moral integrity for such an enterprise.

Yours Sincerely,

Ad van der Ven.

PS 1. My homepage: http://www.socsci.kun.nl/~advdv/

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Second letter:

January 23 2009

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I hereby would like to bring to your attention a new idea for finding a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In order to understand this idea one has to be aware of the fact, that the recently made decision of Hamas to fire rockets into Israel and, as a response to that, the decision of the Israeli government to invade Gaza Strip were both decisions made by democratically chosen governments. It is obvious (and scientifically sound to conclude) that governments chosen in this way can lead to catastrophic results. The same holds, for example, for the decision made by the Bush administration to invade into Irak. Today almost everyone will agree, that this decision was wrong, but nobody seems to be aware of the fact, that the administration by which the decision was made, was also democratically chosen like those of Israel and the Gaza strip.

What is wrong is not the principle of democracy itsself but the principle of election (assignment by vote). Now already about 2500 years ago a very serious scientist wrote, after an extensive empirical study on governmental systems, that it is democratic for the offices to be assigned by lot, for them to be elected (assigned by vote) oligarchic.

In Book 4 of the Politics, Aristotle writes (according to an English translation by Benjamin Jowett):

I mean for example, that it is thought to be democratic for the offices to be assigned by lot, for them to be elected (assigned by vote) oligarchic.

In Greek (Latin transliteration):

Legô d’hoion dokei dêmokratikon men einai to klêrôtas einai tas archas, to d’hairetas oligarchikon.

In a Lottocacy offices are assigned by lot. Now the idea of Lottocracy has originally been developed for global governance. However, the author once assured me, that it could well be of benefit on a regional scale.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to establish a Lottocracy in the region in collaboration with the existent Israeli and Palestinian governments. It would be enough if the number of representatives, which are appointed by lot, are about hundred. A number of thousand as is the case with global governance would not be necessary. This statistically representative body could well exists side by side to the existent governmental bodies.

The mere existence of such representative body could already be a safeguard for coming conflicts, which might be much more serious then this last one.

Finally, I would like you to be aware of the following. A new peace initiative would be the more successful when it is based on new ideas. Moreover, time is of importance too. At the moment the idea of Lottocracy is still unknown to the general public. However, it will soon be common knowledge to most of the people on earth.

Thank you again for reading this message.

Yours Sincerely,

Ad van der Ven.

PS 1. My homepage: http://www.socsci.kun.nl/~advdv/

Filed under: Elections, Proposals, Sortition |