Coccoma: The Case for Abolishing Elections

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Yoram Gat

Nicholas Coccoma writes about sortition in the Boston Review. While some of the narrative is standard, Coccoma makes some crucial points that are often avoided by the prominent members of the sortition milieu.

The Case for Abolishing Elections

They may seem the cornerstone of democracy, but in reality they do little to promote it. There’s a far better way to empower ordinary citizens: democracy by lottery.

In response to [popular] discontent, reformers have proposed a slew of solutions. Some want to expand the House of Representatives, abolish the Electoral College, or eliminate the Senate. Others demand enhanced voting rights, the end of gerrymandering, stricter campaign finance laws, more political parties, or multi-member districts and ranked-choice voting. The Athenians would take a different view. The problem, they would point out, lies in elections themselves. We can make all the tweaks we want, but as long as we employ voting to choose representatives, we will continue to wind up with a political economy controlled by wealthy elites. Modern liberal governments are not democracies; they are oligarchies in disguise, overwhelmingly following the policy preferences of the rich. (The middle class happens to agree with them on most issues.)
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Filed under: Athens, History, Press, Sortition | 1 Comment »

International Network of Sortition Advocates presents

Posted on November 11, 2024 by richwbrown

COMMON GROUND

Using Sortition and Georgism to reclaim the Earth for Everyone, One Plot at a Time

All life and civilization depend on nature. A fundamental function of government is to secure natural territory and develop rules for allocating its use. Efforts to legitimize the sovereignty of the people (sortition) must contend with the challenge of securing territory. This facilitated discussion explores how we might use the neoliberal world order, the corporate/legal tools of oligarchs, and the trend towards privatization to sidestep this challenge in the name of democracy.

Can we claim the Earth for everyone, one plot at a time, by aligning people’s self interest with a global, sortition-controlled land trust?

Sunday, December 8, 2024

20:00 – 21:00 Time zone: Europe/Copenhagen

Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/myk-qegd-avu

Or dial: ‪(DK) +45 70 71 46 12‬ PIN: ‪879 890 812‬# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/myk-qegd-avu?pin=4530805163702

Presenter:

Ian Troesoyer is an advocate for democratic sortition, land value taxation, corporate ownership reform, and intellectual property reform. He is a lottery-selected board member for Democracy Without Elections, a US-based sortition nonprofit. He is also a member of Common Ground USA, a US-based land reform nonprofit. Ian holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice and works as a nurse practitioner and epidemiologist in Idaho, USA. His advocacy is informed by his interest in promoting healthy communities and his belief in the utility of representative random samples.

INSA is a volunteer organisation aimed at connecting pro-sortition academics, advocates, and activists around the world, to share resources and tactics and advance the theoretical understanding of sortition. www.INSA.site