The democratic potential of sortition
Hélène Landemore announced on LinkedIn that the Connecticut Citizens Assembly had become the first self-governed citizens assembly in the world. This morning 89 of the citizens voted for self-governance (9 against). Our brilliant lead facilitator Kenya Rutland (KJR consulting) then proceeded to select 7 representatives by lottery. The 7 accepted. They will shape the agenda [ ]
It is to its great detriment that sortition has become somehow tied to the ideology of deliberation . At best, deliberation is a distraction from the democratic thrust of sortition. It is often worse, an elitist idea that is in conflict with that democratic thrust. The talk of deliberation implies that groups of people are unable [ ]
Election Law Blog writes: Bagenstos, “Lottocracy as a Protector of Democracy? Sortition, Expertise, and the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission” Forthcoming article in the Wisconsin Law Review by Sam Bagenstos (Michigan): A growing body of democratic theory contends that sortition—the selection of decisionmakers by lot rather than election—can strengthen democratic governance,…
Hélène Landemore, whose work is well-known to many regulars on this blog, has been very active online promoting her new book, Politics without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule (2026). Here are a few of her more noteworthy recent appearances. First, on February 9 she appeared on Future Hindsight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQXZ5Yz0bfc The next day, she appeared [ ]
This article by Professor Josine Blok (Utrecht University) is forthcoming in a theme-issue of the journal Representation, edited by Hugo Bonin and Henk te Velde, on Bernard Manin s Principles of Representative Government. The article is available (open access) at https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2026.2688260 Professor Blok argues that Manin s distinction between direct and representative…
Anyone concerned about affiliating sortition closely with a US political pole should take note of last week s New York Sun editorial [paywalled] entitled The Newest Word From the Left — Sortition. Citing articles promoting sortition by the Nation’s Bhaskar Sunkara and In these Times editorial team, the Sun s editorial directly associates sortition with the escalating [ ]
Paul Krugman had a discussion with fellow New Jerseyans at jury selection and found them to be good people. And it was just a far more hopeful scene — at least I found it much more hopeful — about the state of the country. It turns out that ordinary Americans — this is, again ordinary [ ]
Ian Troesoyer is a nurse practitioner, epidemiologist and sortition activist living in Idaho, USA. Treosoyer has recently published a very good article on Substack with the title above. The article begins as follows: To my comrades engaged in the struggle for a more just world, let me attempt to convince you that underneath the existential [ ]
The left-leaning Jacobin magazine has offered its readers the idea of sortition back in 2018 and then last December had a couple of pieces advocating for sortition one being an interview with Alexander Guerrero and one being an article by Terry Bouricius. Jacobin now has a debate of sorts [paywalled, but full text here] [ ]
Politico reports: Staff working at the Berlaymont building [The European Commission’s headquarters] received a text at midday, reading: “BERL — URGENT — Due to extreme weather conditions, forced shut down of air cooling system from floor 1 to 7 for the rest of the day.” The 13-story building is home to Commission President Ursula von [ ]