Thought Cages: a Parliament by lottery

Posted on November 23, 2018 by Nicholas Gruen

Readers of this blog may be interested in this brief documentary radio program that recently went to air on BBC Radio 4.

A Parliament by Lottery

Could we fix the disconnect between the public and its politicians – by selecting our MPs by lottery?

In today’s episode, ad guru and expert on human behaviour Rory Sutherland explores how a “House Of The People”, comprised of a random cross-section of the British public – might be better at truly reflecting the considered will of the British people.

Rory is joined by the Australian political economist and expert on innovation Nicholas Gruen – who explains how the idea dates back to the Ancient Greeks – and the MP for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Philips, an elected parliamentarian who’s keener on the idea than you might expect…

Filed under: Press, Sortition |

2 Responses

Roger Knights, on November 23, 2018 at 10:44 pm said:

It’s 13:45 long. The exchanges among participants are nice and civilized-British. One unusual and praiseworth emphasis was on the danger of elite (college professor) over-rationality “getting things very, very wrong” and being reluctant to change its opinion.

Another unusual (and creative) idea of Gruen’s was that if the advisory, “cit-ocratic” chamber voted by super-majority to disapprove a bill from the “pol-ocratic” chamber, the latter would then have to employ a secret ballot in the next round, breaking the grip of party loyalty, and likely often delivering a different and less parisan result.

(See how concise and general one can be when using my neologisms!)

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2018 review – sortition-related events | Equality by lot, on December 20, 2018 at 9:54 am said:

[…] in the New York Times. Sortition was featured in the Left-leaning magazine Jacobin as well as on BBC radio, and was mentioned in the Washington Post. Canadian scientist and environmentalist expressed […]

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