1Dime Radio Sortition Democracy: Selection by Lot (Ft. Victor Bruzzone)
Sep 3, 2024
In this enlightening discussion, Victor Bruzzone, co-host of the Pill Pod, dives into the intriguing concept of sortition—where representatives are chosen by lottery, echoing practices from Ancient Athens and Renaissance Italy. He reveals how this approach can combat election-driven corruption and promote fairness in representation. Victor also shares innovative ideas for modern adaptations of sortition, including examples from Oregon and Ireland. They explore the tensions between sortition, direct democracy, and electoral systems, sparking a captivating conversation about the future of democracy.
01:16:42
Agenda-Setting Elected, Policy By Lot
- Victor Bruzzone proposes a bicameral mix where an elected house sets agenda and a sortition house makes policy decisions.
- This preserves party competition on priorities while removing electoral incentives from policymaking.
Sortition Mirrors Jury Duty Representation
- Sortition means randomly selecting citizens like jury duty to decide policy instead of electing representatives.
- It can be stratified to ensure demographic representation or used periodically for focused citizens' juries.
Real-World Sortition Examples
- Victor cites Ireland's citizen assembly which shaped referendum questions, notably on abortion reform.
- He also mentions Oregon's Citizens' Initiative Review as an operational example of sortition practice.
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Intro
00:00 • 3min
Why Discuss Sortition and Radical Democracy
03:03 • 2min
Origins: How Victor Learned of Sortition
04:36 • 1min
Sortition vs Electoral Incentives
05:54 • 1min
Historical Examples: Athens and Italian City-States
07:20 • 2min
What Sortition Looks Like Today
09:12 • 3min
Stratified Samples and Inclusion
11:58 • 1min
Practical Pilots: Oregon and Ireland
12:59 • 1min
Assembly Democracy and Town Halls Critiques
14:00 • 3min
Limits of Assemblies and Participatory Democracy
16:35 • 1min
Sortition as Middle Ground to Direct Democracy
17:40 • 3min
Who Gets Selected: Universal vs Opt-In
20:13 • 25sec
Democratic Legitimacy and Blind Deference Objection
20:38 • 3min
Participation, Human Nature, and Responsibility
23:24 • 3min
Victor's Intellectual Journey and Political Views
26:00 • 2min
Liberalism's Value and Democracy's Limits
28:03 • 2min
Strauss, Aristocracy, and Natural Right
30:20 • 4min
Straussian Political Preferences
33:52 • 3min
Epistocracy vs Democratic Pluralism
36:56 • 17min
Knowledge, Fair-Mindedness, and Voter Competence
53:34 • 3min
The Ideological Turing Test
56:11 • 3min
Operationalizing Open-Mindedness in Deliberation
59:37 • 6min
Competence Objection and Possible Filters
01:05:11 • 3min
Sortition Reduces Popularity-Driven Politics
01:08:30 • 4min
Elections' Constraints on Policy Innovation
01:12:21 • 2min
Transition Challenges and Class Analysis
01:14:40 • 52sec
Victor's Institutional Teaser
01:15:32 • 25sec
Outro
01:15:57 • 46sec
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In this episode of 1Dime Radio, I am joined by Victor Bruzzone of the Pill Pod (Plastic Pills Podcast) to discuss forms of radical democracy such as Sortition - “the lot system” in which representatives are selected at random by lottery. It was used in Ancient Athens and for a time also in the Republics of Florence, Venice and Genoa.
Sortition is not the same thing as “direct democracy,” such as assembly (which was also used in Athenian Democracy). The Marxist Paul Cockshott also proposes the sortition system in his book, “Towards a New Socialism.”
In The Backroom, Victor proposes his own variant of sortition, which he has been working on, which I found quite fascinating and innovative. You don’t want to miss it.
Timestamps:
00:00 Preview of The Backroom
03:02 A Radical Form of Representative Democracy
07:20 Sortition in Athens and the Italian City States
12:24 Pros and Cons of Sortition
41:01 Leo Strauss and The Aristocratic Reading Method
54:12 Intelligence and Epistocracy
01:04:33 Sortition vs Elections
Outro Music by Karl Casey
The book I was refering to was called “Principles of Representative Government” by Bernard Manin
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