Thinking Sortition : Modes of selection, deliberative frameworks and democratic principles

Details

Ressource 1Download: Cahiers_IEPHI_68_Courant (2017).pdf (367.18 [Ko])
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: All rights reserved
Serval ID
serval:BIB_315BD0030F49
Type
Report: a report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series.
Publication sub-type
Working paper: Working papers contain results presented by the author. Working papers aim to stimulate discussions between scientists with interested parties, they can also be the basis to publish articles in specialized journals
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Thinking Sortition : Modes of selection, deliberative frameworks and democratic principles
Author(s)
Courant Dimitri
Institution details
Université de Lausanne, Les Cahiers de l'IEPHI / IEPHI Working Paper Series
Address
Université de Lausanne
Issued date
2017
Number
68
Genre
Les Cahiers de l'IEPHI
Language
english
Number of pages
33
Abstract
The abstract democratic ideal is hegemonic nowadays, but, what is considered to be its concrete institutional forms are facing a growing “crisis of representation” and distrust. As an answer to this crisis and after centuries of absence, sortition (selecting representatives by lots) is making its return on the political stage through various academic research, practical experiments and activist claims. But each thinker, experimentation, or militant group, is giving a different explanation of what sortition is, why and how it could strengthen democracy. How could we be thinking sortition efficiently? Instead of doing a chronology of this return my proposal is to construct a more general theory of sortition in a comparative approach. A broad study seems necessary in order to grasp the theoretical constants, despite the empirical diversity of sortition concrete uses. First, I shall compare sortition to the three other selection modes: election, nomination and certification. Second, I will analyse the deliberative frameworks, that is to say “who decides what how”. Third, I will distinguish four democratic principles of sortition: equality, impartiality, representativeness and legitimacy. My first research hypothesis is that sortition is likely to offer a greater equality, impartiality and
representativeness. My second hypothesis is that sortition is the only method of selection producing a specific form, a humility-legitimacy when the three other
selection modes are producing a superiority-legitimacy.
Keywords
Democracy, legitimacy, representation, selection, sortition
Create date
24/05/2019 15:58
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:16
Usage data