Posted on November 28, 2011 by Yoram Gat
Daniel Baron of the Institute of Sociology, RWTH Aachen University introduces his article, The Power of the Lot: Are People Obliged to Participate in Political Lotteries? as follows:
While empirical research in the field of aleatoric democracy usually focuses on the deliberative outcomes of these procedures (Fishkin & Luskin 1999; Fishkin et al. 2000), theoretical approaches mainly ask whether political lotteries, compared to traditional ways of recruiting political personnel (esp. elections), are just or not (Stone 2007, 2009). Further discussions broach the subjects of political representation, equality or input- and output-legitimacy (Buchstein 2009a). Down to the present day, a key question to ask when focusing the problem of legitimacy of aleatoric democracy has been most widely ignored: whether laypersons chosen by lot should be compelled to participate in the committee where they have gained a seat, or whether sortition should be founded on the principle of voluntariness.
Continue reading →
Filed under: Juries, Sortition, Theory | 15 Comments »
Posted on November 21, 2011 by Yoram Gat
I have created an advertising campaign on Google with the following ad:
Clicking on the ad currently takes you to the home page of this blog, but it would probably be better if the target was an “introduction to sortition” page. Such a page can be created and added to the tabs at the top of the blog (next to the “Home”, “About the Kleroterians”, “Contributors” and “Literature” tabs).
If anyone is interested in collaborating on creating such a page (possibly something along these lines), please let me know. Comments on the text of the ad are also welcome.
Filed under: Sortition | 5 Comments »
Posted on November 12, 2011 by Yoram Gat
Washington law establishes the Washington state citizens’ commission on salaries for elected officials which
[s]tudies the relationship of salaries to the duties of members of the legislature, all elected officials of the executive branch of state government, and all judges of the supreme court, court of appeals, superior and district courts, and shall fix the salary for each position.
Number of appointments by Governor: 16
Term in Years: 4
Compensation: Expenses only
Qualification: Members are selected by lot by the Secretary of State from registered voters in each congressional district, each of which has one representative member. The other members are selected jointly by the speaker of the house and the president of the senate, and their names are submitted to the Governor for appointment. Five members must have experience in personnel management, one each from the following sectors: business, professional personnel management, legal profession, organized labor, private institution of higher education; one recommended by the state Personnel Resource Board; and one recommended by majority vote of the presidents of the state’s four-year institutions of higher education. No member may serve more than two full terms.
Number of yearly meetings: 6
Filed under: Sortition | 12 Comments »
Posted on October 30, 2011 by Yoram Gat
The Sydney Morning Herald writes about newDemocracy, “a mix of business people, academics and former politicians” and its agenda, filling in some interesting information about the founder of the group:
“You can march in the streets and make a noise but that’s not enough,” newDemocracy founder Luca Belgiorno-Nettis said. “You have to show more direction.”
Mr Belgiorno-Nettis, a multimillionaire director of Transfield Holdings whose family is one of Australia’s great migrant success stories, conceived of the research body seven years ago with the idea of improving the democratic process.
Perhaps the most promising idea to come out of the think tank is a proposal to include everyday citizens in forming groups which would consider some of the issues governments wrestle with each day. Known variously as citizens’ juries or citizens’ parliaments, they could make recommendations on topics big and small.
Imagine, for example, if you wanted to extend your home. Instead of lodging a development application with the council, your plans could be assessed by a panel of your peers along with some experts to advise them.
Mr Belgiorno-Nettis believes the application of the citizens’ jury can work equally well on questions of health care, education, tax reform and infrastructure as well as newer concerns such as climate change.
“Perhaps I am being a little ambitious but I would like to get to a point where we could run citizens’ assemblies, parallel to the Senate, in NSW,” he said. “It might sound a far-fetched now but, if there are well-minded people behind it and there is public support for it, well, why not?”
Filed under: Press, Proposals, Sortition | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Yoram Gat
A New York Times/CBS opinion poll finds that only 9% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, and only 10% feel that they can “trust the government in Washington to do what is right”. Both of those numbers are the lowest on record.
Filed under: Elections, Opinion polling, Press | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Yoram Gat
Jose Baez, who was Casey Anthony’s defense attorney, writes in the Orlando Sentinel:
Almost four months ago, the jury in the trial of Casey Anthony found her not guilty of murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child — and the jurors have paid for it ever since.
They have paid for it at the hands of pundits and so-called veteran court watchers, who have relentlessly denounced the verdict and the jurors.
[…]
Some argue that the judicial system is broken and that this jury is to be scorned. They could not be more wrong. Our system of criminal justice has a presumption of innocence and a constitutional guarantee that we will face a jury of our peers.
As Sir William Blackstone said in his “Commentaries on the Laws of England in 1765”: “… a competent number of sensible and upright jurymen, chosen by lot from among those of middle rank, will be found the best investigators of truth, and the surest guardians of public justice.”
Filed under: Juries, Press | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 20, 2011 by Yoram Gat
www.peoplessenate.ca:
People: You, me, all of us.
Senate: An ‘upper house’ of parliament that reviews the government’s proposed laws and policies and gives them a thumbs up or thumbs down.
People’s Senate: A senate formed from the random selection (lottery) of the public.
People’s Senate Party: A party that believes BC needs this.
Politicians seem all the same, banding together in order to disparage their opponents. We might wonder why these members of parliaments cannot make consensus decisions in a civilized way, why the group in power must bully through their policies. (And why the policies are often contrary to the needs of the 99%) Unfortunately it couldn’t really be any other way than it is because the elected members are by-products of a system that demands these actions from them.
The People’s Senate Party accepts the adversarial nature of the legislative assembly but does not accept that these elected men and women should have the final say on the legislation and policy that affects us. We believe BC needs a Senate, but formed from a random selection of citizens similar to a courtroom jury. This Senate would use mutual deliberation and consensus to approve or reject the legislation and policies devised by the politicians. Our proposed senators, normal people like you and me (in fact you could be one if you win this senator lottery), could even suggest legislation of their own.
This political jury, we’re calling a People’s Senate.
Filed under: Proposals, Sortition | 42 Comments »
Posted on October 12, 2011 by Yoram Gat
Prof. James Fishkin has an op-ed piece in the New York Times:
One hundred years ago today, California voters added the ballot initiative to the State Constitution, allowing citizens to use petitions to bring proposed statutes and constitutional amendments for a public vote.
In the article Fishkin entwines two themes. On the one hand, according to Fishkin, multiple cycles of legislation via the initiative system have encumbered California with various laws that cannot be overturned by the legislature, and make California “virtually ungovernable”. He cites the two-thirds rule for raising taxes, mandatory funds allocation (40% to education), the “three strikes law” and term limits for legislators. (He also originally cited a two-thirds rule for passing the budget – this reference was removed from the article since last year Proposition 25 eliminated this rule in favor of passage by regular majority.)
The other theme is the troubles with the Proposition system itself – supposedly the cause for the passage of the problematic laws.
Continue reading →
Filed under: Athens, Ballot measures, Opinion polling, Press, Proposals, Sortition | 25 Comments »
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Yoram Gat
Gil Delannoi will be presenting a seminar under the title “Sortition and conceptions of equality” on October 11th in Paris (I presume).
The announcement mentions Delannoi and Dowlen’s Sortition: Theory and Practice (Imprint Academics, 2010), Delannoi’s report Le retour du tirage au sort en politique, briefly reviewed in Libération, and a recorded interview with Delannoi:
Filed under: Press, Sortition | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 13, 2011 by Yoram Gat
Jorge Cancio writes:
As you perhaps know, Spain is undergoing some difficult times, both economically and politically.
Since May a new social movement, demanding “real democracy now” has taken the streets. Its main focus is to criticize the lack of democratic participation rights and the hegemonic position of the two main political parties.
Some discussions and debates tend to concentrate on possible direct democratic institutions, already present in other countries, such as referenda, recall and legislatitive initiative.
However, discussion of sortition as a democratic tool is for the first time seriously hitting the streets. During the local elections in May a small political party favouring sortition launched its initiative in Galicia (www.sorteopolitico.com).
On November 20th we will have general elections for our parliament and a new initiative to form a party is being launched: www.partidoazar.com. It is worthwhile to spend some minutes visiting the website and reading its well written and argued contents.
Filed under: Initiatives, Sortition | 77 Comments »
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