A Randomly Selected Chamber: Promises and Challenges

Abstract

This paper explores the idea of a randomly selected chamber of representatives (RSC) through an appreciation of the promises it offers and the challenges it would face. We identify two main promises: a RSC could offset the aristocratic character of elections, thereby increasing the legitimacy of the political system; and it could increase democracy's epistemic potential, thanks to gains in terms of diversity, deliberations, humility, and long-term perspective. We then discuss four key challenges. First, participation: how can the chamber have diversity without mandatory participation or heavy sanctions? Second, how can we conceive or build legitimacy for this non-elected and somehow unaccountable chamber's views? Third, independence: how to safeguard randomly selected people from corruption? Finally, there may be a linguistic challenge: if the RSC has a deliberative role, how should it cope with the possible linguistic diversity of its members? We conclude that these challenges are not insurmountable, but reveal some trade-offs that cannot be entirely dissolved.

Drawing Out Democracy: The Role of Sortition in Preventing and Overcoming Organizational Degeneration in Worker-Owned Firms

“…Because they have fewer allegiances to political programs and less of a need to engage in partisan activity, randomly selected representatives are likely to have more time, greater freedom of judgment, and greater intellectual modesty when deliberating and engaging with different perspectives (Gastil & Wright, 2018;Vandamme & Verret-Hamelin, 2017). In addition, they are likely to adopt a focus on bigger-picture issues with longer term horizons because they will be freed from the incentives to focus on the short run and on issues for which credit can easily be claimed that are brought on by the nature of electoral campaigns (Guerrero, 2014;Vandamme & Verret-Hamelin, 2017). Finally, workers would likely perceive collective decisions as more legitimate because they would have been made by people like them:…”

Why Voting Does Not Imply Consenting

“…Before concluding with the meaning of these findings for relations between citizens and their representative institutions, allow me to point out possible implications for debates around the comeback of sortition as a designation mode for rulers (Landemore, 2013;Vandamme and Verret-Hamelin, 2017;Courant, 2019;Bedock and Pilet, 2020), although this is not the primary purpose of this paper. What emerges from this discussion is the potential to deactivate one objection against sortition: the objection that elections are necessary for legitimacy because they are the way citizens can express their consent to their rulers' power, and hence give them authority.…”

“…Furthermore, in the current context of increasing questioning of representative institutions (which lies at the core of this research topic), the problem is all the more worthy of attention that it seems to mirror many citizens' actual preoccupations. It may also be of interest for the lively debates around sortition (Landemore, 2013;Vandamme and Verret-Hamelin, 2017;Courant, 2019;Bedock and Pilet, 2020), either as a substitute for or as a complement to elections, to attain a clearer picture of the connection between consent and elections, notably to assess what may get lost, in terms of consent, if we dispense of elections.…”

Democracy Transformed: Perceived Legitimacy of the Institutional Shift from Election to Random Selection of Representatives

“…Its impartiality is thought to inhibit corruption (Buchstein, 2010) while also preserving humility-and therefore responsiveness-among those selected (Guerrero, 2014). Selected representatives are themselves likely to be more impartial absent political debts or pressures to cater to partisan or special interests in seeking re-election, and are therefore free to revise their opinions and take a longterm view of policy decisions (Burnheim, 1985;Vandamme & Verret-Hamelin, 2017). Moreover the tendency toward descriptive representation is likely to reduce the overrepresentation of ambitious, prestige-seeking individuals (Guerrero, 2014).…”