it removes the ability for the most depraved and power-hungry people to achieve high office with any frequency. The real problem with power is that it attracts evil people like moths to a flame
I genuinely believe a lot of people get into politics for the right reasons. Some of them might have bad ideologies, but they genuinely believe they can make a difference for good. But the political system works against this goal, exactly as you describe.
Sortition solves this problem entirely. I like the idea of maybe just using it to select 3 candidates. That way the voters can hopefully prevent the real crazies from winning office, if one happens to have their lot drawn
To me, sortition works best in situations where there isn’t just a single person. You don’t do sortition for president, you do it for a council, a parliament, an inquiry, a board, or, obviously, a jury. That, by its very nature, prevents the one crazy from taking charge and causing havoc.
I do think there are some issues with sortition when it comes to providing actual leadership. It’s a great approach to figure out what policies to go for, but who does foreign diplomacy? Who meets leaders of other countries? Who makes hard in-the-moment decisions in times of war? In some circumstances, there is an actual advantage to people with experience being at the highest rungs of politics. I’m sure there would be a way to deal with that in sortition, but it’s at least worth considering.
Whoops, late reply. Sorry.
I genuinely believe a lot of people get into politics for the right reasons. Some of them might have bad ideologies, but they genuinely believe they can make a difference for good. But the political system works against this goal, exactly as you describe.
To me, sortition works best in situations where there isn’t just a single person. You don’t do sortition for president, you do it for a council, a parliament, an inquiry, a board, or, obviously, a jury. That, by its very nature, prevents the one crazy from taking charge and causing havoc.
I do think there are some issues with sortition when it comes to providing actual leadership. It’s a great approach to figure out what policies to go for, but who does foreign diplomacy? Who meets leaders of other countries? Who makes hard in-the-moment decisions in times of war? In some circumstances, there is an actual advantage to people with experience being at the highest rungs of politics. I’m sure there would be a way to deal with that in sortition, but it’s at least worth considering.