What if we replaced politicians with randomly selected people? | Brett Hennig

If you think democracy is broken, here's an idea: let's replace politicians with randomly selected people. Author and activist Brett Hennig presents a compelling case for sortition democracy, or random selection of government officials -- a system with roots in ancient Athens that taps into the wisdom of the crowd and entrusts ordinary people with making balanced decisions for the greater good of everyone. Sound crazy? Learn more about how it could work to create a world free of partisan politics.

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[JustValentine]

The education system would have to drastically change for this idea to be fruitful. We cannot continue to create non-thinking automatons who just follow orders if we are going to work towards this "truer" democratic state.

[jacobm]

I think one of the major benefits that these large "sortition" senates/parliaments could provide would be the elimantion of the "left vs right"/"us vs them" mindset, and the elimination of the general division between parties that puts current senates/parliaments into states of immobility, where individuals of either "side" or group won't concede any "power" or "leverage to the other side for fear of losing support from the implemented power structures that allowed those individuals to come into power (i.e. their party, their base, funders and donaters who "commit" to certain parties.

[AvailableUsernameTed]

There is an Isaac Asimov story where one guy is randomly selected by computer to be the one voter in the election. Political Parties still existed but they had to please this one guy. It was called 'Franchise' and was written in 1955. An interesting idea.

[MasterKaravay]

Yeah, in Russia this randomizer machine will always pick Putin

[nokoolaid]

I've been saying this for years. Cut out the psychopaths and career leeches.

[JimmyBOnYouTube]

In the United States, how a member of Congress can go into a $174K job, and come out as a multimillionaire seems odd. The 22nd Amendment limits the President to no more than 10 total years, and I wonder if it's time to seriously consider term limits for Congress.

There are political views on the left and right, and just like with any family, there will be disagreement. However, when a power-hungry and elite class slowly penetrate a Democracy, the idea and meaning of a self-governed citizenry devolves.

[najrenchelf]

It‘s funny because the one group project for uni, where we were randomly put together by the professors, made the result that was the best i.m.o.

[Eric-syxu]

"Wisdom of crowds". Yes. Witch trials are always fun.

[vakuzar]

I think sortition is a terrible idea with tons of inherent issues, in theory, let alone in practice... Having said that I absolutely love that there are people looking for alternative government systems, an art long lost and desperately needed.

[nolan]

Quite an interesting concept. I have been saying for years that getting much of the politics out of government would be the best way to improve the system.

Implementing something like this still wouldn't get rid of politics though. As long as people have opinions they will still argue and maneuver amongst the crowd to get their way. And some people who get in are bound to have greater leadership capacity than others. it would however wipe the slate clean after every term. And at least it would keep the system from being dominated by people seeking power. A term would instead be something like imposed responsibility, like jury duty.

[nesano]

Everyone pushing for a system like that would mysteriously die of heart attacks.

[MichaelBerthelsen]

I'd be quite worried about countries with a high rate of strong religious belief, how to avoid the religious majorities destroying the minorities. So you'd first have to have unalterable constitutional laws in place, but unchangeable laws are often not a good thing either...

[justfun]

I'm not in political sciences, but my initial reaction is welcoming of sortition democracy. I worry that there will be selected individuals who are not responsible and instead apathetic towards their newly granted position. How will this be combated? Selecting more individuals for the citizen's senate, a screening, or something else? Perhaps I'm assuming that the probability of selecting apathetic individuals is much higher in my own bias than it actually is.

[accuratedude]

I was thinking that the jury system is a sortition. And it works pretty well.

[BlaineNay]

No mater how local and national representatives are selected (sortition, popular vote, birthright, term limits, etc, ) we still have the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who actually run the government in spite of what the representatives say. How do we fix THAT problem?

[Neo-wxqo]

I like this idea. Anyone that want to lead has an agenda. We need to randomly select a governing council, like a jury. No more single leaders.

[bibisulaiman]

Those who oversee the random selection process would ACTUALLY be in charge.

[LucasRijana]

I'm a political scientist and I'd support a movement like this. What worries most critics is the fact that government would be "too representative" of the people, who are very dumb, apparently. But a truly just and legitimate society has to care more about the people having a voice on law-making than to lead them to a utopia, which normally leads to a totalitarian nightmare.

[Jules_Diplopia]

The trouble is that it would become Mob Rule. One or 2 members of the group would be charismatic or bullying enough to lead the rest. And the mob would follow like sheep.

[gavimbexton]

Love this guy's ideas. Imagine, a government by the people and ran by the people globally working toward the common benefit of mankind ! It would eliminate so many problems! Sounds utopian to me but it would be fantastic!