Sortition, “a beacon for billions”

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Yoram Gat

A few days ago, the Portland Press Herald published a bold, “completely original” plan for city government, about which “political philosophers will be writing for millennia”. Sortition is an important part of this plan.

First, competitive elections will be abolished. No more “vote for me.” No more sloganeering. No more name recognition. Instead of popularity contests, members of every representative office in our city will be elected by sortition, or through a lottery system, with officials chosen at random for a term of one year. We will have 66 districts, each containing roughly 1,000 people. This will make our city a true government of the people. The mechanics of election-by-sortition are simple: An algorithm will randomly select a name from the city’s draft rolls.

Next, we are proposing a tricameral system of government: a 66-person Popular Assembly of Legislative Supremacy (“PALS”), a House of Landlords and Yeomanry (“HOLY”) and a three-person Supreme High-most Unlimited Council of Knowledge Systems (“SHUCKS Troika”). Our nine-person City Council will be gone. So will be our city manager. All three new branches have key roles, but the PALS shall be our chief lawmaking and deliberative body.

Sortition shall select the members of the 66-person PALS branch. The idea is simple: It could be you. PALS will be a raucous parliament made up of average citizens, all chosen at random.

Filed under: Elections, Fiction, Press, Proposals, Sortition |

« Dymond: Citizens’ assemblies, a choreographed charade Elective offices summon demons, fiends and gargoyles from the burning sewage pits of hell »

Anonymous, on April 10, 2024 at 1:20 pm said:

Yoram, this appears to be an April Fool’s joke on the part of the writers. Although perhaps they are only partly joking?

LikeLiked by 1 person

Nick Coccoma, on April 10, 2024 at 1:21 pm said:

This looks to be an April Fool’s joke.

Sortitia's Calamitous and Care-Free Colonoscopy (you call that a probe? give me that thing!), on April 10, 2024 at 3:49 pm said:

Clever! Props where they are due. Of course it has to be in Portland, though. Uggh! Where progressive dreams go to die. One can’t help but wonder if such a proposal would actually improve their lot (ahem) or if Portlandia would just continue its perpetual slide down the drain of dystopia. It would be freaking hilarious if this is what finally puts sorting on the map for Bret and Heather :-)

Anonymous, on April 17, 2024 at 9:28 pm said:

It’s Portland, Maine, not Portland, Oregon. If anyone has time to write the authors, it would be interesting to know where the got the inspiration from.

LikeLike