MeRA25 and sortition

MeRA25 is a Greek party headed by former Syriza finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. MeRA25 has recently made two moves pushing sortition forward in the Greek political agenda.

First, in July MeRA25 tabled a bill proposing that senior public servants would be elected by an allotted committee. The bill calls for

Establishment of a new, autonomous General Secretariat for Public Revenue, whose General Secretary will be selected by neither the government nor the lenders. Instead, they will be elected by a Social Committe for Selection of Senior Personnel, 1/3 of which is comprised of parliamentarians, 1/3 by judges selected by sortition and 1/3 by tax professionals – accountants selected by sortition.

Secondly, MeRA25 is selecting its own central committee members with some of them selected by election, some by appointment and some by sortition:

The 1st Central Committee is comprised of the members of the current Extended Political Secretariat, 15 members chosen by sortition amongst all MeRA25 members (who are also DiEM25 members), 2 members from every Administrative Region (excluding Attica) put forward by the Secretary in concert with the Committee for the Organisation of the Congress and Movement Outreach, and 1 member from every electoral district, selected by the members of that district through e-voting.

4 Responses

  1. Nowhere is explained sortiton. It is assumed.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Good point. Could it be that the Greek term is well known in Greece? It is, after all, part of their history.

    Like

  3. The party co-founder Yanis Varoufakis appeared in our recent film “Out of the Ruins” – making the point about elections = oligarchy and what he imagined would be Aristotle’s bemusement at our systems of electoral politics (from 19:26s https://youtu.be/TuXYM1T2818?t=1166)

    Liked by 2 people

  4. […] in Germany: 1, 2, 3, 4. Sortition was also implemented or proposed in Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, the United States, and […]

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