The SMH notes, a touch condescendingly, some recent council elections in small electorates where votes were tied have been decided by Sortition.
There is some question in this case over whether some postal votes went missing due to corruption. If this is the case it should of course be rooted out. But sortition itself is an ancient democratic technique with a proud history, and one which all republics should look to as a mechanism for representative government. It is a means of binding the tyranny of the majority without using a self-perpetuating hereditary or factional elite; and a celebration of government by the people. (reply)
Possum gets upset that the Liberal Party of Queensland are using a 'lucky dip' otherwise known as lot or sortition to negotiate between factions. This is a very old political device to ward off violence. Often chance is accepted when there is no obvious strong political successor in what would otherwise descend into violence or permanent factional paralysis.
The Sydney City Council uses a name drawn from a hat to elect the deputy mayor. If I recall correctly when there was no obvious senior Roman Consul, then the senior and junior Consuls were chosen by lot. Rome had two Consuls and for hierarchical purposes such as Consul Decree had to have a senior one. (reply)
This is an update of the previous Gubernatorial Sortitionist Constitution. It is also built on a non-sortitionist gubernatorial constitution that was done as an exercise for NSW. Main change in this version is that members of the citizenry body can resign to the Governor. (more)
Technical forms of production are very dependent on quality control to minimise the variation in their product from the requirements. This means the customer gets a consistent product or service every time. Consequently in industrial parlance quality means minimum of variation from the requirements or specifications. We can probably start looking at Parliament as having inbuilt quality mechanisms to produce quality legislation where policy substitutes in the role of requirements.
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I modified the Gubernatorial NSW Constitution by adding a Citizenry, or Citizen's Council component, whose members are chosen by lot. The same manner that juries are chosen. It is non-compulsory as sortitionists can resign (immediately if they choose).
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Crikey reports that the British Commons voted on several measures to make the House of Lords a democratic house rather than the titled house it is now. (more)
Clover Moore, Sydney Council's mayor, raised a ruckus last night by demanding that she be able to appoint the Deputy-Mayor. The current method is to have the deputy elected by sortition - basically draw a candidate from names in a hat. The Local Government Act in NSW contradicts Moore's claim that she can appoint a Deputy. (more)
In 2003
South Australia held a constitutional convention
to look into improving the state's parliamentary system. The convention went for just over two days and included "Deliberators". These were citizens chosen by sortition from the South Australian voting age population.
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The Westminster system of the Executive Cabinet being embedded in Parliament grew from the need to route executive power away from the monarch while leaving the King with ceremonial authority. This is in contrast to the Washington system which separated the Executive entirely from Congress. The Westminster system, as practiced in Britain, also contains the upper house as a left over from the period when the King-Lord-Commons form of political philosophy dominated. Wentworth proposed this model for NSW when the colony was seeking self-government. Deniehy famously pilloried this illiberal model of government. Reform for the House of Lords in Britain is a common form of discussion, a new think-tank and advocacy group for a modern House of Lords has recently been formed, the Lords Reform Institute. They are proposing a sortitionist model.
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The most common form of sortition is juries. Recently in the United States anonymous juries have started appearing. The media do not like them, as they believe it fosters secrecy in the court system and violates the principle of being tried by your peers. But is there a role for anonymous sortition in politics?
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