Equality by lot

Sortition proposals in Spanish?

6 Responses

1. 

   Arturo, on December 25, 2014 at 6:58 pm said:

   This is a new proposal that you can add to the list (which does not yet exist, as far as I know): htpps://n-1.cc/ruptura_de_contrato

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2. 

   Arturo, on December 25, 2014 at 7:11 pm said:

   There is a problem right now with the site n-1.cc, please try later — if it does not get solved in a while, I will publish my proposal somewhere else. By the way, there was an omission in the URL that I posted before: it should be https://n-1,cc/g/ruptura_de_contrato.

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3. 

   davidschecter, on December 25, 2014 at 8:28 pm said:

   Thank you, Arturo. I wasn’t able to access the site, but I’ll try again later.

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4. 

   Arturo íñiguez, on December 25, 2014 at 10:59 pm said:

   For those who do not read Spanish, I will try a brief description here.

   In order to implement a meaningful sortition-based system (meaningful as not merely with an advisory role but with real decision-making power), the worst practical problem we will face will be convincing half the population plus one that this is indeed a good idea. That is a huge amount of inertia to overcome. The only way to circumvent this obstacle, from my point of view, is a mixed system in which election and sortition coexist in the same legislative chamber. In which proportion? That is the key question, and the only original contribution I could claim if I cared (mixed systems have been proposed long before).

   The answer is built upon the individual right to political participation deriving from the social contract (Rousseau). Every citizen can choose to exerce that personal right either by voting for a representative or by an equivalent chance of being sorted. In this way, sortitioners do not impose their choice on others, who can go on voting as they are used to do. Conversely, opposing the free choice of sortitioners is clearly an imposition of a particular way of exercing their right to political participation — one way that they do not prefer. As Rousseau wrote, et d’où cent qui veulent un maître ont-ils le droit de voter pour dix qui n’en veulent point?

   At the end of the day, the proportion between elected representatives and alloted citizens within the legislative chamber will vary at every renewal depending on the amount of people opting for either the vote of the chance to be sorted. Although the latter option could be considered to be the implicit choice of those who simply abstain of voting, I would rather have in my proposal a deliberate act by which the citizen that so whishes formally renounces to vote and chooses instead to be eligible at the lottery. Needless to say that only these will be eligible; the ones who voted will be not, since they have already exhausted their individual right to political participation by delegating it to their chosen candidate.

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5. 

   jorge cancio, on December 26, 2014 at 7:42 am said:

   Hi David
   Here’s an old list somebody put up a couple of years ago with a number of texts in Spanish (and other languages): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ldA_fyR8jwLLy2OrRRy8TEJ9zatU89jfAX2NaQ7o4Us/edit?pli=1
   Jorge

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6. 

   Arturo íñiguez, on December 26, 2014 at 1:52 pm said:

   There are some broken links in the list that can be replaced by these:

   http://sintomer.net/file/EMPUJAR_LOS_LIMITES_DE_LA_DEMOCRATIA_PARTCIPATIVA.pdf (not a detailed proposal but a general recomendation to add sortition at the ongoing experience around the participatory budget in Porto Alegre, Brazil; the Spanish translation is very bad, even hard to understand at times if you don’t speak French).

   http://mdc.ulpgc.es/cdm/ref/collection/csureste/id/151

   http://insaculacion.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/de-la-escogencia-de-cargos-publicos-por.html

   May I add my own article at rebelion.org?
   http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=173191
   It was the third installment of a series and announced a fourth one, supposed to advance concrete proposals. Those never came until a year later, under the form of the theatrical play published at n-1.cc (which, by the way, is working again).

   There are two political parties that have concurred at local or national elections, without much success:

   http://www.partidoazar.com/
   If I have understood him well, the thinking of Tomás Mancebo has significantly evolved since then.

   https://web.archive.org/web/20110827113619/http://www.sorteopolitico.com/

   Finally, there are some discussions at forums that prove the great deal of interest this issue can raise among people that learn about it for the first time:

   http://rinconpipa.foroactivo.com/t10003-sorteo-de-cargos-politicos-modelo-ateniense-democracia-directa-vs-partitocracia-corrupta

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