The document discusses the history of using sortition, or selection by lottery, in democratic decision-making. It describes how ancient Athens used sortition to select hundreds of citizens each year to serve on its governing council, and how Venice also used lotteries to select positions in its aristocratic republic. It then discusses proposals to use sortition for certain government functions in modern democracies, such as selecting citizens to serve on deliberative bodies to address issues like climate policy. The document argues that sortition can help avoid power becoming concentrated in the hands of elites and prevent decisions from being made for bad reasons.

1. Sortition in the History of
Democracy
Federico Ast

2. Is rationality always
desirable in
decision-making?

3. Pool of
Options
Option
Chosen
The Blind Break
Break

4. A lottery
decision
is a(n)
...decision
impartial
amoral
alogical
non-discriminating
unemotional
non-prejudiced
non-thinking
arational
unpredictable
non-creative
non-wilful
non-passionate
un-ambitious
non-calculating
etc ...

5. The Lottery Principle
“Decision-making by lottery is justified
whenever it is important that bad
reasons be kept out of the decision.”

6. Voting
Decision
based on
reasons (good
and bad)

7. Lottery
Decision not
based on
reasons (good
and bad)

8. “History never repeats
itself, but it rhymes”
Mark Twain

9. Ancient Athens:
Sortition in the World's
First Democracy

10. Cleisthenes
The Father of
Democracy
(a.k.a. “the Ancient
Satoshi Nakamoto”)
508 B.C.

11. Citizens
Citizens Assembly
CouncilCourts Magistrates
500 selected by lot6000 selected
by lot
600 selected by lot
100 elected by vote
α
β
γ
Δ
δ
λ
λ
Θ
ε
ψ
π
φ
ρ
λ
λ
γΩ
Π
Σ

12. 7000 100
99% 1%

13. The Council
500 citizens selected by lot
rotating every year

15. Kleroterion

18. Power

19. Break

20. Rotation in the Council
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

21. Breaking Partisanship, Patronage
and Collusion
+

22. “Elections
by Lot at
Athens”
Headlam, J.W.

23. “Democracy and
Knowledge:
Innovation and
Learning in
Classical Athens”
Josiah Ober

24. Venice:
Lotteries in an Aristocratic
Republic

25. The Paradox of the
Serenissima Repubblica

26. Power

28. Leonardo Loredan,
Doge of Venice
(1501 – 1521)

30. Consiglio
Grande:
Five
Day
Conclave

31. Great Council 30 Members

32. 30 Members 9 Members

33. 9 Members 40 Members
Nominate
40 people
by at least 7
votes a
piece

34. 40 Members 12 Members

35. Nominate 25
people by at
least 7 votes
a piece
12 Members 25 Members

36. 25 Members 9 Members

37. 9 Members 45 Members
Nominate
45 people
by at least
7 votes a
piece

38. 45 Members 11 Members

39. 11 Members 41 Members
Nominate
41 people
by at least 7
votes a
piece

40. Elected
by at
least 25
votes
41 Members 1 Doge

41. “The office should seek the
man”
Venice Proverb

42. Break
Making Politics an Unattractive Career

44. A Security Theater

46. The United States:
Sortition in the First
Representative Democracy

48. John Jay
(1745-1829)
James Madison
(1745-1829)
Alexander
Hamilton
(1757-1804)
The Federalists

49. Thomas
Paine
(1737-1809)
Common
Sense
(1776)

50. How to avoid a capture of
the federal government by
the elites of the powerful
states?

51. 30 delegates from
each colony to
Congress

52. 13 Colonies 1 Colony

53. Elected by
at least 25
votes
30 Members 1 President

54. Breaking Power Concentration
+

55. The Decline of
Sortition

56. Luck as abdication of
individual responsibility

57. The fall of the classical
ideal of a republic

59. The Revival of Lotteries in
Late Stage Democracy

60. The Kleroterians
Hélène
Landemore
Peter
Stone
John
Burnheim
James
Fishkin

61. Deliberative Mini-Publics

62. 150 randomly
drawn French
citizens to
create new
climate policy

65. Building the Institutions
for the Decentralized
Internet

66. When Should Lotteries Be Used?
Possibility of
good reasons
No possibility of
good reasons
Possibility of
bad reasons
No possibility of
bad reasons

67. “The Luck
of the
Draw”
Peter Stone

68. “The Political
Potential of
Sortition”
Oliver Dowlen

69. Sortition in the History of
Democracy
Federico Ast