Political Potential of Sortition: A Study of the Random Selection of Citizens for Public Office

by Oliver Dowlen

Overview

The central feature of every true lottery is that all rational evaluation is deliberately excluded. Once this principle is grasped, the author argues, we can begin to understand exactly what benefits sortition can bring to the political community. The book includes a study of the use of sortition in ancient Athens and in late medieval and renaissance Italy. It also includes commentary on the contributions to sortition made by Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Harrington and Paine; an account of the history of the randomly-selected jury; and new research into lesser-known examples from England, America and revolutionary France.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845401795
Publisher:	Imprint Academic (Ips)
Publication date:	08/01/2009
Series:	Sortition and Public Policy
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

Editorial Reviews

"His painstaking study... goes a considerable way to recovering a largely subterranean tradition of democratic practice and bringing it to light."

The Quarterly Review - Allan Pond