Conall Boyle

‘Lottery’ system would improve access

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Conall Boyle

A lottery system would help poorer children access better education

Collaborative research by the University of Cambridge, the University of Bristol and the Institute of Fiscal Studies has suggested that a lottery system of admissions could make the intake of Britain’s leading schools and universities fairer.

The research was based on the Millennium Cohort Study, which follows the lives of 19,000 children born in the United Kingdom in between 2000 and 2001.

You can read the whole article here:

http://www.varsity.co.uk/news/7586

Filed under: Distribution by lot | 6 Comments »

Just How Do CJs support ‘Freedom and Democracy’?

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Conall Boyle

In a spate of moronic ‘reforms’ Education Ministers in England (of all parties) have vowed to set schools free from the dead hand of local (elected!) authorities. Hence there are Academies, Free Schools, Foundations including some for-profit schools. Yet all of these are funded by the State through taxpayer money.

So how should these ‘free’ schools be governed? A Governing Body, but chosen by election? No, no! Continue reading →

Filed under: Applications, education, Participation, schools, Sortition | Tagged: CJs, democracy | 10 Comments »

Politics and gambling lotteries

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Conall Boyle

Nice piece in today’s Financial Times (paywall, so I’m reproducing it below). Interesting fact: The “Yes” campaign in Scotland gets 80% of it’s funding (£3.5 mn) from just one lucky lottery winner.

June 13, 2014 7:03 pm

The whims of the super-rich can turn politics into a lottery

By Gideon Rachman

Courting the rich is both necessary and dangerous for politicians

©Reuters

So this is what the future of the United Kingdom comes down to? Harry Potter versus EuroMillions. On September 18, Scotland will vote on independence. The news that JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter oeuvre, has decided to give £1m to the Better Together campaign is a welcome boost to the pro-union campaign. Until now, it has struggled to match the financial firepower of the pro-independence campaign, which has benefited from £3.5m donated by Chris and Colin Weir, a couple who won £161m playing the EuroMillions lottery in 2011. All told, the Weirs account for about 80 per cent of the funding received by the Yes campaign.
Continue reading →

Filed under: Ballot measures, Distribution by lot | 2 Comments »

Lottery Selection for Medical Students scrapped in the Netherlands?

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Conall Boyle

Oh no it is not! There is still a large element of lottery selection, but because of de-centralisation, under the new rules it is difficult to tell how much more (or less) ‘loting‘ will take place.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Applications, Distribution by lot, education | Tagged: lottery selection, medical students | 2 Comments »

Analysis programme BBC R4 24 Feb 2014 – feedback

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Conall Boyle

A splendid piece with excellent contributions from Barbara and Peter. (I spoke to the producer and gave him a lot of pointers, but couldn’t do the interview because of a 3-week break in Tenerife)

I was delighted that most of the programme was devoted to lotteries for school and university places. The case for university entrance by lot was well made, as a difficult but inevitable method of choosing between generally well-qualified applicants.

However no mention was made of the highly successful Dutch medical school entry lottery which has stood up very well over the decades. Pity!

Lotteries for school places (seats in the US) produced a less satisfactory result. The obvious fairness of lottery and the unfairness of nearness-to-school were demonstrated.

But the result of using the lottery, especially in Brighton, is deemed ‘unsatisfactory’ because the desired social mixing has not been achieved.

This is entirely predictable, because entry to the lottery is voluntary. Only the determined (middle-classes) go for it. If a representative outcome didn’t happen, at least all parents/children had a rough equality of chance.
Continue reading →

Filed under: Applications, Distribution by lot, education, Press, schools | 10 Comments »

Sortition on BBC4 Radio PM programme

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Conall Boyle

Today (27 Nov 2013) in a series about reforming democracy, a listener proposes picking MPs by lot. A panel of Bogdanor, Runciman and Clare Fox sympathise but don’t think it would solve anything.

It starts at 25 mins in, and runs for about 5 mins at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jdw6p

[BBC sometimes does not allow access outside UK]

Filed under: Applications, Athens, Sortition | 9 Comments »

How could Sortition fix any of this?

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Conall Boyle

An excellent piece in today’s (London) Independent on Sunday on the impotence of not just citizens, but politicians and even Prime Ministers in the face of global economic power

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/power-to-the-people-dont-make-me-laugh-8919136.html

So what is the point of replacing powerless politicians with citizen’s juries?

Filed under: Elections, Juries, Sortition | 36 Comments »

Conference on ‘loting’ in the Netherlands

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Conall Boyle

Ben Wilbrink draws our attention to a recent (Sept 2013) Conference on random selection:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5045028077/

(In Dutch, but google-translate will help)

At least nine papers presented, including one from Prof Em Piet Drenth. It was mostly about selection for entry to medical school, a very important practical application which has been run successfully for more than 30 years throughout the Netherlands.

Filed under: Applications, Distribution by lot, education | Leave a comment »