Sortition and democracy

Present-day parliamentary democracies face severe criticism. Beside grievances due to social and economic changes, many critics contend that the elected government does not truly represent the citizens or their interests. One possible remedy for the perceived democratic shortcomings of elected representation is the institution of citizen bodies selected by lot. For its growing number of advocates, this idea is inspired by the allotment of political offices in democratic classical Athens. This article investigates how sortition for political office from all citizens was introduced and finally anchored in Athens. Understanding the necessary conditions for sortition may be helpful for current initiatives in our modern democracies. Initially, this method was not a success, and it remained the object of criticism, especially when it was broadly applied. Nonetheless, most of the citizens embraced the system and it worked rather well for Athenian democratic self-governance. I argue that sortition in the domain of politics relies on trust in the justice of the lot as instrument, and on a profound sense of the political equality of all citizens, including a clear and accepted idea of who is to share in the procedure. And last but not least, citizens need to be willing to take an active part in self-governance.