The Latest from Internauta Online

Posted on March 19, 2014 by peterstone

The latest from academics studying sortition in Italy. I must admit, I’m not exactly anxious to associate either plebiscites or Ross Perot with direct democracy.

http://www.internauta-online.com/2014/03/ross-perot-unintentional-progenitor-of-e-democracy-and-sortition/

Filed under: Academia, Sortition |

5 Responses

keithsutherland, on March 19, 2014 at 8:16 am said:

>If we can envisage the day when democracy will go from representative to deliberative, i.e. the day when sortition will substitute elections.

This is a very confused piece, as everything subsequent to the opening sentence:

>If we can envisage the day when democracy will go from representative to deliberative, i.e. the day when sortition will substitute elections

was about the replacement of deliberation with plebiscitary direct democracy. Athenian democracy was a mixture of direct and sortive democracy, but the two forms need to be kept distinct. And electoral democracy in the UK used to be deliberative until it was crushed by partisan arithmetic. Of the two elements in the compound term “representative democracy” it was the increase in the the latter (via the extension of the franchise) that put paid to deliberation.

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keithsutherland, on March 19, 2014 at 8:34 am said:

Here’s a link to the original Economist piece: http://www.evanravitz.com/economist1.htm

It’s a 1993 reflection on the potential impact of the end of Soviet communism on democratic practice. Although it’s entirely devoted to direct democracy, most of the arguments are applicable to sortition.

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keithsutherland, on March 19, 2014 at 9:19 am said:

Here’s the second Economist piece, warmly recommended:
http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796-democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20th-century-why-has-it-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do

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Yoram Gat, on March 19, 2014 at 6:57 pm said:

Floating in a sea of nonsense and cliches, the Economist presents some useful data:

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keithsutherland, on March 19, 2014 at 8:34 pm said:

YG: >Floating in a sea of nonsense and cliches, the Economist . . .

Gosh Yoram if everyone was as sensible and well-informed as you then it would be a truly wonderful world. From my ignorant and bigoted perspective there was little in either piece that I would take serious issue with, but then I’m from the same stable of capitalist lick-spittles and useful idiots as the Economist.

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