Summary
Highlights
There are two ways to resolve this paradox: abandon democracy for populist leaders, or fix the broken system to align practice with the democratic ideal. The speaker proposes a radical solution: sortition, or random selection, to populate parliaments. This would involve randomly choosing citizens to serve, potentially stratified to ensure demographic representation, creating a 'microcosm of society'.
The fundamental question of how humans should live together, sharing resources and making rules, is more critical than ever due to issues like inequality, climate change, and the refugee crisis. Historically, thinkers like Plato proposed benevolent guardians, and communist ideologies attempted their own answers, often with brutal results. Democracy, however, presents a different approach that has seen remarkable success in recent history.
The 20th century witnessed an extraordinary rise in the number of democracies, leading some to believe we've reached the 'end of history' with liberal democracy as the ultimate answer. However, despite widespread agreement that democracy is good in principle, there's a paradox: many feel that modern democracies are not functioning well. Political systems are seen as broken, politicians untrusted, and special interests distort the process.
A randomly selected parliament, acting as a microcosm of society, would simulate how the populace would think if given time, information, and a good process. Decisions would benefit from the wisdom of crowds, with members becoming critical thinkers informed by experts. This diverse group could demonstrate that diversity often trumps ability in addressing complex societal problems, moving beyond mere public opinion to make considered public judgments. A significant side effect, however, would be the end of career politicians.
Random selection was central to ancient Athenian democracy, where citizens were selected for most political posts to avoid the aristocracy of elections and career politicians. This ancient practice is now experiencing a modern resurgence, with compelling evidence suggesting that when people are given responsibility, they act responsibly. While not a panacea, sortition is presented as a superior alternative to current democratic systems.
To implement sortition in the 21st century, various initiatives are already underway globally, including experimentation in schools and workplaces (Bolivia), policy juries and citizens' assemblies (Australia, US, Ireland), and social movements advocating for change (UK). The speaker suggests a first step could be a citizens' senate (a second chamber filled with randomly selected people) as a 'Trojan horse' into government, ultimately advocating for the replacement of elections with sortition when the current system can no longer be patched.