Jakobi: Lottocracy as Democracy

Posted on January 31, 2026 by Yoram Gat

Lottocracy as Democracy: Political Equality, Representation and Public Control without Elections? is the Ph.D. thesis of Julia Jakobi written in 2024 at the university of Hamburg under the supervision of Christine Straehle and Annabelle Lever. In the introduction Jakobi writes that “[i]n the following I will ask: is lottocracy the better form of democracy?” and “[t]he aim of this thesis is […] to assess the democratic legitimacy of randomly selected citizens’ assemblies, independent of additional approval by elected politicians. To do so, I focus on Alexander Guerrero’s (2014; 2020; 2021a; 2021b) utopian proposal of lottocracy.” (Interestingly, this was being done exactly at the time that Guerrero was finally publishing his long promised book on this subject.)

I have not read the thesis carefully from end to end but it seems like it is to a large extent a typical product of the genre of academic work on sortition. It cites the usual sources and covers the usual topics (equality, representation, participation, accountability, deliberation) in the usual manner, ultimately leaving the reader without a clear structure for understanding the issues involved. It is however an accessible work (and much shorter than Guerrero’s book, for example) and can serve as a starting point for those who are interested in and are unfamiliar with the academic work on the subject.

Filed under: Academia, Deliberation, Elections, Participation, Proposals, Sortition | Leave a comment »

International Network of Sortition Advocates presents

Posted on January 24, 2026 by richwbrown

Towards a Peoples’ Assembly for Europe

Progress & Future

Democratic Odyssey believes that creating a permanent, transnational and traveling Peoples’ Assembly for Europe can future-proof decision-making and amplify collective intelligence. A pilot assembly began in Athens in September 2024 and concluded in Vienna in May 2025 completing the first cycle of the Democratic Odyssey.

Join Ondrej Gavura, an Austrian sortition advocate and one of the members of the Vienna assembly, as he presents an overview of the project and next steps for Democratic Odyssey. Ondrej will also include an explanation of the Venetian voting process and how it could be used to select future seats on the board of the European Peoples’ Council.

About the Speaker: Ondrej Gavura is a telecommunications engineer who became an advocate for democratic reform after observing Austrian society being split apart over the national presidential elections in 2016. He is currently a board member of the European People’s Council that evolved from the Democratic Odyssey. He is a finance officer at G!LT, the society to promote open democracy; one of the founders on the DACH Ballottino group for sortition based politics; and part of the coordination group of the International Network of Sortition Advocates.

Date: Sunday, 1 February 2026

Monday, 2 February – Australia & Asia

Time: 17:00 – 18:00 London

18:00-19:00 Europe/Copenhagen • 12:00 Noon-1:00 PM US Eastern • 9:00-10 AM US Pacific

Location: Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/fgi-atiq-doq

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