Sortition, also known as allotment, is a fair method of selection by some form of lottery such as drawing coloured pebbles from a bag. It is used particularly to allot decision makers. In Ancient Athenian Democracy sortition was the primary method for appointing officials, a system that was thought to be one of the principal characteristics of democracy. It is today commonly used to select jurors in Anglo-Saxon based legal systems. Single-winner voting systems are voting systems in which a predetermined constituency elects a single person to some office; they contrast generally with proportional representation, in which constituencies are combined to elect several representatives at once. ... An example of a plurality ballot. ... An example of runoff voting. ... The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. ... Preferential voting (or preference voting) is a type of ballot structure used in several electoral systems in which voters rank a list or group of candidates in order of preference. ... The Condorcet candidate or Condorcet winner of an election is the candidate who, when compared in turn with each of the other candidates, is preferred over the other candidate. ... A Condorcet method is a single winner election method in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. ... Copelands method is a Condorcet method in which the winner is determined by finding the candidate with the most pairwise victories. ... The Kemeny-Young method is a voting system that uses preferential ballots, a tally table, and sequence scores to identify the most popular choice, and also identify the second-most popular choice, the third-most popular choice, and so on down to the least-popular choice. ... Minimax is often considered to be the simplest of the Condorcet methods. ... The Borda count can be combined with an Instant Runoff procedure to create hybrid election methods that are called Nanson method and Baldwin method. ... It has been suggested that Maximize Affirmed Majorities be merged into this article or section. ... The Schulze method is a voting system developed in 1997 by Markus Schulze that selects a single winner using votes that express preferences. ... Bucklin is a voting system that can be used for single-member districts and also multi-member districts. ... The Coombs method, created by Clyde Coombs, is a voting system used for single-winner elections in which each voter rank-orders the candidates. ... Example Instant-runoff voting ballot Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a voting system most commonly used for single member elections in which voters have one vote, but can rank candidates in order of preference. ... On an approval ballot, the voter can vote for any number of candidates. ... Range voting (also called ratings summation, average voting, cardinal ratings, 0–99 voting, or the score system or point system) is a voting system for one-seat elections under which voters score each candidate, the scores are added up, and the candidate with the highest score wins. ... Voters at the voting booths in the US in 1945 Voting systems are methods (algorithms) for groups of people to select one or more options from many, taking into account the individual preferences of the group members. ... Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation, or PR), is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies). ... A points method ballot design like this one is the most common for governmental elections using cumulative voting. ... Mixed member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system used to elect representatives to numerous legislatures around the world. ... Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections (e. ... Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the (by the political party itself supplied) order in which party candidates are elected. ... Closed list describes the variant of party_list proportional representation where voters can (effectively) only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the (party-supplied) order in which party candidates are elected. ... The DHondt method (equivalent to Jeffersons method, and Budder-Ofer method) is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. ... The highest averages method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... The Sainte-Laguë method of the highest average (equivalent to Websters method or divisor method with standard rounding) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... This STV ballot for the Australian Senate illustrates group voting tickets. ... The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. ... Parallel voting describes a mixed voting system where voters in effect participate in two separate elections using different systems, and where the results in one election have little or no impact on the results of the other. ... A points method ballot design like this one is the most common for governmental elections using cumulative voting. ... The Single Non-Transferable Vote or SNTV is an electoral system used in multi-member constituency elections. ... Bloc voting (or block voting) refers to a class of voting systems which can be used to elect several representatives from a single multimember constituency. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Athenian democracy (sometimes called Direct democracy) developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. ... Definitions of the Anglosphere vary: Countries in which English is the first language of a large fraction of the population are shown in blue. ...

Background

Athenian Democracy developed in the 6th century BC out of what they called isonomia (equality of political rights), and allotment was the principal way of achieving this fairness. It was used to select most ^[1] of the magistrates for their governing committees and for their juries (typically 501 people). Special machines, Kleroterions, were used to ensure fair drawing of the lots. Athenian democracy (sometimes called Direct democracy) developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. ... Isonomia (equal political rights[1][2]) from the Greek ισο iso, equal, and νομος nomos, usage, custom[1] is said to be the historical and philosophical foundation of liberty, justice, and democracy. ... A magistrate is a civil or criminal (or both) judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. ...

Aristotle relates equality and democracy: This article is about the philosopher. ...

"Democracy arose from the idea that those who are equal in any respect are equal absolutely. All are alike free, therefore they claim that all are free absolutely... The next is when the democrats, on the grounds that they are all equal, claim equal participation in everything." ^[2]

In Athens, "Democracy" (literally meaning rule by the people) was in opposition to those supporting oligarchy (rule by a few) and Democracy was characterised by being run by the "many" (the ordinary people) who were allotted to the committees which ran government. Thucydides has Pericles make this point in his Funeral Oration: Bust of Thucydides residing in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. ... Pericles or Perikles (ca. ...

"It is administered by the many instead of the few; that is why it is called a democracy."^[3]

The Athenians believed sortition to be more democratic than elections ^[1] and used complex procedures with purpose built allotment machines to avoid the corrupt practices used by oligarchs to buy their way into office. According to the author Mogens Herman Hansen the citizen's court was superior to the assembly because the allotted members swore an oath which ordinary citizens in the assembly did not and therefore the court could annul the decisions of the assembly. Both Aristotle^[1] and Herodotus (one of the earliest writers on democracy) emphasise selection by lot as a test of democracy: Mogens Herman Hansen (b. ... This article is about the philosopher. ... Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Hērodotos Halikarnāsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ...

“The rule of the people has the fairest name of all, equality (isonomia), and does none of the things that a monarch does. The lot determines offices, power is held accountable, and deliberation is conducted in public.” ^[4]

Past scholarship maintained that sortition had its roots in the use of chance to divine the will of the gods, but this view is no longer common among scholars.^[5]

Another historical example is Venice where sortition was used to select the holders of key political and administrative offices, sometimes combined with an element of qualification or election. For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ...

Today, sortition is commonly used in selecting juries in Anglo Saxon legal systems and in small groups (e.g., picking a school class monitor by drawing straws). In public decision making, individuals are often allotted if other forms of selection such as election fail to achieve a result. Examples include certain hung elections and certain votes in the UK Parliament. Some contemporary thinkers have advocated a greater use of selection by lot in today’s political systems for example Lords Reform and the Iraqi constitution [1]. Sortition proposals put forward in the modern world generally relate to the means for selecting a large legislative body (such as the U.S. Congress) from among the adult population at large. For jury meaning makeshift, see jury rig. ... Drawing straws is a selection method used by a group to choose one person to do a task when no one has volunteered for it. ... This article is about the political process. ... A political system is a system of politics and government. ... Look up Lords Reform in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Advantages

Effective representation of the interests of the people

A modern advocate of sortition, political scientist John Burnheim, argues for sortition as follows (Is Democracy Possible?, pp. 124-5): John Burnheim, Professor of General Philosophy at the University of Sydney, Australia. ...

But do we, in order to have democracy, have to find a way in which the demos first makes up its mind what is to be done and then controls its representatives in the process of carrying it out? What I want to suggest is a different conception. Let the convention for deciding what is our common will be that we will accept the decision of a group of people who are well informed about the question, well-motivated to find as good a solution as possible and representative of our range of itnerests simply because they are statistically representative of us as a group. If this group is then responsible for carrying out what it decides, the problem of control of the execution process largely vanishes. Those directing the execution process are carrying out their own decisions. The may need a little prodding to keep them up to the mark, but there is no institutional basis for a conflict of interest between bodies responsible for making decisions and those responsible for execution. They have an overriding interest in showing that their decisions are practical and well-grounded.

Fairness & Equality

Sortition is inherently fair in that it ensures all citizens have an equal chance of entering office irrespective of any bias in society and implies an equal society where there is no meaningful difference between all the members of the society which would make one more suitable than another. ^{[dubious – discuss]}

Democratic

Almost all Greek writers who mention democracy (including Aristotle^[1], Plato and Herodotus) both emphasise the role of selection by lot or state outright that being allotted is more democratic than elections. For example Aristotle says:

"it is thought to be democratic for the offices to be assigned by lot, for them to be elected is oligarchic," ^[6] This article is about the philosopher. ... PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ... Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Hērodotos Halikarnāsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ... This article is about the philosopher. ...

We see the same idea in the 18th century after the re-emergence of democracy in the writings of Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu:

"The suffrage by lot is natural to democracy, as that by choice is to aristocracy"^[7] “Montesquieu” redirects here. ...

Less corruptible than elections

Because processes can be developed to ensure that selection is completely fair. For example, Athenians used complex allotment procedures with complicated machine to allot officers. Like Athenian democrats, critics of electoral politics in the twenty-first century argue that the process of election by vote is subject to manipulation by money and other powerful forces and because legislative elections give power to a few powerful groups they are believed to be less democratic system than selection by lot from amongst the population.

Fair representation

Modern supporters see selection by lot as overcoming the various demographic biases in race, religion, sex, etc. apparent in many legislative assemblies. This actually differs somewhat from Athenian democracy, in which women (and others) could not vote and therefore a bias was inherent.

Power to ordinary people

An inherent problem with electoral politics is the over-representative of the politically active groups in society who tend to be those who join political parties. For example in 2000 less that 2% [2] of the UK population belonged to a political party whilst in 2005 there were at best only 3 independent MPs (see List of UK minor party and independent MPs elected) so that 99.5% of all UK MPs belonged to a political party. As a result political members of the UK population were represented by one MP per 1800 of those belonging to a party whilst those who did not belong to a party had one MP per 19million individuals who did not belong to a party.

Voter fatigue

Supporters also argue that sortition alleviates the problems of voter fatigue and rational ignorance, which is seen as a problem in both representative democracy and direct democracy.

... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Athenian democracy (sometimes called Direct democracy) developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. ... ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This is a list of members of the United Kingdom House of Commons, from 1919 onwards, who were elected as an independent or as a member of a minor political party. ... “Political Parties” redirects here. ... In politics, voter fatigue is the apathy that the public can experience when they are required to vote too often. ... Rational ignorance is a term most often found in economics, particularly public choice theory, but also used in other disciplines which study rationality and choice, including philosophy (epistemology) and game theory. ... Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principles of popular sovereignty by the peoples representatives. ... Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy,[1] comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. ...

Disadvantages

Sortition does not discriminate

The most common argument against pure sortition (that is, with no prior selection of an eligible group) is that it does not discriminate those selected and takes no account of particular skills or experience that might be needed to effectively discharge the particular offices filled. Just as the Athenians did not choose generals (Strategos) by lot, so today most would agree that random selection from the general population would not be a good way of filling the role of medical surgeon or aircraft pilot due to the specialist skills that those roles require. The same is argued for many political offices as under a system based on election, it is thought unlikely that those manifestly lacking the requisite skills will be elected to office. According to Xenophon (Memorabilia Book I, 2.9), this classical argument was offered by Socrates:

"[Socrates] taught his companions to despise the established laws by insisting on the folly of appointing public officials by lot, when none would choose a pilot or builder or flautist by lot, nor any other craftsman for work in which mistakes are far less disastrous than mistakes in statecraft." The term strategos (plural strategoi; Greek στρατηγός) is used in Greek to mean general. In the hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor. ... “Surgeon” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Aviator (disambiguation). ... Xenophon, Greek historian Xenophon (In Greek , ca. ... Also known by the Greek tiltle Apomnemoneumata, the alternate (and more accurate) Latin translation Commentarii, and a variety of English translations (Recollections, Memoirs, etc. ... This page is about the Classical Greek philosopher. ...

The same argument is also made by Edmund Burke in his essay Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790):

"There is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom, actual or presumptive. [...] Everything ought to be open, but not indifferently, to every man. No rotation; no appointment by lot; no mode of election operating in the spirit of sortition or rotation can be generally good in a government conversant in extensive objects. Because they have no tendency, direct or indirect, to select the man with a view to the duty or to accommodate the one to the other." Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729[1] – July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. ...

However, supporters of sortition argue that there is nothing in the structure of elected government (or of dictatorships, we might add) that suggests representatives will be any more intelligent or capable than those they represent. Indeed, the very question is complex, since we can always ask, "who defines capable?". Moreover, political decision making is arguably not a craft or science, as Socrates suggests. There is not one correct answer to a political question, as in science or mathematics, but rather politics is a question of values, interests and aims. In a democracy, the values, interests and aims that should be satisfied are those of the populace, and therefore the populace is arguably qualified by definition. Certainly, there is room for expertise in formulating the process whereby people's aims will be achieved, but not in deciding those aims. A randomly selected house could listen to the advice of experts, as elected houses do now.

Sortition can put in power people with minority views

Some of the officials selected by sortition may hold views that greatly differ from those common in the population. For example, an unusually rich official may be selected, and once in power may try to use it to change a tax system in a way that will benefit himself and other rich individuals, in a manner that is opposed by, and possibly detrimental to, individuals who are not as wealthy.

The voting process creates interest, debate, learning, and community

The process of voting in itself has value; it creates interest and public debate on the future direction of public policy; it may also encourage deeper learning on the issues at stake; it also makes people less isolated by creating various organizations and parties.

Voting confers legitimacy

Those who see voting as expressing the "consent of the governed", maintain that voting is able to confer legitimacy in the selection. According to this view, elected officials can act with greater authority than when randomly selected. A counter-argument is that by consenting to sortition as used for a jury, the public consents to this form of selection.

Sortition is a form of compulsion

Unless the system of sorition allows people to opt out of serving, measures for compelling people to serve need to be instituted.

Enthusiasm of the representatives

In an elected system, the representatives are to a degree self-selecting for their enthusiasm for the job. Under sortition the individuals are not chosen for their enthusiasm. Many electoral systems assign to those chosen a role as representing their constituents; a complex job with a significant workload. Elected representative choose to accept any additional workload; voters can also choose those representatives most willing to accept the burden involved in being a representative. Individuals chosen at random have no particular enthusiasm for their role and therefore may not make good advocates for a constituency.

Methods

Before the random selection can be done, the pool of candidates must be defined. Systems vary as to whether they allot from eligible volunteers, or from the membership or population at large.

The selection method should be carefully designed in order to preserve public confidence that it has not been rigged. One robust, general, public method allotment is RFC 3797: Publicly Verifiable Nomcom Random Selection. Using it, multiple specific sources of random numbers (e.g. lotteries) are selected in advance, and an algorithm is defined for selecting the winners based on those random numbers. When the random numbers become available, anyone can calculate the winners.

Examples

• Historical
  • The Athenian democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery rather than by election.
  • The Doges of Venice were appointed by a lengthy procedure which alternated between sortition and election.
  • The Signoria of Florence and other Italian city republics was elected by lot during the medieval period.
• Modern
  • Juries are found in courts of law, and in the context of community involvement as citizens' juries.
  • The Canadian province of British Columbia asked a randomly selected group of citizens forming the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform to propose a new electoral system for the provincial government.
  • Danish Consensus Conferences give ordinary citizens a chance to make their voices heard in debates on public policy. The selection of citizens is not perfectly random, but still aims to be representative.
  • The South Australian Constitutional Convention was a deliberative poll created to consider changes to the state constitution.
  • Some election laws regarding certain offices in the United States provide that, in the case of a tie between the leading candidates, a coin toss (rather than a runoff election) shall be conducted.
• Non-government
  • The Internet Engineering Task Force uses sortition to select the nominating committee which selects its leadership. It has also defined a robust, general, public method for making random selections: RFC 3797 - Publicly Verifiable Nomcom Random Selection
  • Consensus conferences have been run in the USA by the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization concerned with the social, political, and environmental repercussions of research, science and technology.
  • Deliberative polls
  • Several Spanish savings banks (caja de ahorros) randomly elect compromisaries among some account holders (for example, those who had an account for more that four years and with mean holdings over the minimum wage in Caja de Ahorros de Asturias (2002)). Those chosen then gather in assembly to elect the bank members representing account holders.
  • In Spain and Switzerland, citizens are randomly selected to manage ballot boxes and count ballots on election days.
  • The Slashcode forum software as used in Slashdot randomly elects forum moderators that assign points to postings. The randomness is weighted with karma and posting frequence. The registered readers can later meta-moderate the work of the random moderators.
• Proposals
  • Political scientist Robert A. Dahl suggests in his book Democracy and its critics (p. 340) that an advanced democratic state could form groups which he calls minipopuli. Each group would consist "of perhaps a thousand citizens randomly selected out of the entire demos," and would either set an agenda of issues or deal with a particular major issue. It would "hold hearings, commission research, and engage in debate and discussion." Dahl suggests having the minipopuli as supplementing rather than replacing legislative bodies.
  • Demarchy is a political system in which many small "citizen's juries" would deliberate and make decisions about public policies.
  • Ernest Callenbach and Michael Phillips argue for random selection of the U.S. House of Representatives in their book A Citizen Legislature.

Athenian democracy (sometimes called Direct democracy) developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. ... Grand Procession of the Doge, 16th century Doges Palace Complex For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice was the Doge (Duke). ... The Signoria was the government of medieval and renaissance Florence. ... For jury meaning makeshift, see jury rig. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour Without Sunset (diminishment)) Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo - Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 36 - Senate seats 6 Confederation July 20, 1871 (6th province) Area  Ranked 5th - Total 944,735... The Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform is a group created by the government of British Columbia, Canada to investigate changes to the provincial electoral system. ... The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies; and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. ... A nominating committee is a group formed usually from inside the membership of an organization for the purpose of nominating candidates for office within the organization. ... A savings bank is a financial institution whose primary purpose is accepting savings deposits. ... The minimum wage is the minimum rate a worker can legally be paid (usually per hour) as opposed to wages that are determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market. ... Slash (a backronym for Slashdot Like Automated Story-telling Homepage) is the open source collection of Perl scripts which runs Slashdot, one of the oldest and most popular collaborative weblogs around. ... Slashdot, often abbreviated as /.[1], is a science, science fiction, and technology-related news website owned by SourceForge, Inc. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... A meta-moderation system is an arrangement used on some Internet websites (such as internet forums, blogs and news websites) which invite user comments. ... Robert Alan Dahl (b. ... Elections Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Demarchy is a term that describes a political system based on randomly selected groups of decision makers, also known as sortition. ... Ernest Callenbach (born April 3, 1929) is an American writer. ... Michael Phillips is a prominent Canadian psychiatrist known for his work in mental illness and suicide prevention. ...

See also

• This entry is related to, but not included in the elections and voting series. Other related articles can be found at the Politics Portal.
• Allotment
• Election
• Appointment
• Lottocracy
• Clerotarchy
• Random ballot

This article is about the political process. ... Vote redirects here. ... Look up allotment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the political process. ... Appointment may refer to a number of things, including the following: Look up appointment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The random ballot voting method takes the one person one vote principle to an extreme by only counting the vote of one person. ...

References

Mogens Herman Hansen (b. ...

External links

• Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (official website).
• South Australian Constitutional Convention (official website)
• The Loka Institute (official website)
• The Sortition Option. Article from the Constitution Society.
• Sortition. Newsletter of the Society for Democracy including Random Selection (UK).
• A Citizen Legislature
• Integrating Public Voting And Random Selection for True Democracy