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The research I've seen (slight) is that a random person is, on average, a more competent statesman than the average politician. (This is a result of the self-se
by thechao 4y ago
The research I've seen (slight) is that a random person is, on average, a more competent statesman than the average politician. (This is a result of the self-selection bias in people choosing a political career.)
The major downside is a lack of accountability; however, at least in large parts of the US, factionalism & gerrymandering have almost completely removed accountability, so we're not really losing anything.
- rocqua 4y agoLinks to the research?
- Supermancho 4y agoI don't know if this helps: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344163235_Sortition_its_advocates_and_its_critics_An_empirical_analysis_of_citizens'_and_MPs'_support_for_random_selection_as_a_democratic_reform_proposal https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344163235_Sortition... MP means Member of Parliament (or equivalent representative of a democratic government). Belgium has been a hot-spot for this kind of initiative.
- pdabbadabba 4y agoCan you point us to any of that research? I'd be very interested to see how they managed to measure people's competence to serve as government officials. I'm frankly skeptical that can be done in a useful way.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y agoI find this idea somewhat compelling. Anecdotally, my favorite boss was someone who did not want the job. He just looked around and realized the alternatives were worse. Meanwhile, everyone else seems to have arrived at the position by wanting the power/wealth of continuing to climb the ladder.
- barry-cotter 4y ago> The research I've seen (slight) is that a random person is, on average, a more competent statesman than the average politician. (This is a result of the self-selection bias in people choosing a political career.) This seems extremely unlikely just by virtue of the fact that the average person has an IQ of 100 and the average MP doesn’t. Practically guaranteed to be above 115. There are very large differences in education. The median voter in the US is over 50 and never went to, never mind graduate from, college.
- eru 4y agoYes. For that reason, instead of picking people directly at random, pick ballots at random to fill up parliament. In theory, you could pick random votes first, and then ask them about their choice. But there's all kinds of targeted influence possible at that stage. So let voters make their choice first, and then pick randomly. You'd need some kind of resolution mechanism for when multiple random ballots have the same candidate on them. Eg give the guys vote in parliament a higher weight, or have people write down multiple candidates in order, or just pick another random vote etc. (Some resolution mechanisms might work better than others. I don't know.)