What if your president was chosen via lottery? - Michael Vazquez

0:06 Elections— often called the cornerstone of democracy— are tools

0:11 that ensure a nation's citizens all have an equal political voice.

0:15 But these so-called “great equalizers” have long been plagued by corruption,

0:20 partisan divides, and uninformed voters.

0:24 Which is why some of democracy’s first

0:27 and most famous practitioners used a different approach.

0:31 From 508 to 322 BCE, Athens increasingly moved away from elected officials.

0:40 Outside specialized positions like military

0:43 generals and senior finance officers,

0:46 most legislative, executive, and judicial roles were appointed via lottery.

0:53 Starting at age 30, citizens could place

0:56 a token with their name into an allotment machine.

1:00 These machines appointed citizens to government positions through

1:05 a process designed to ensure randomness and prevent fraud.

1:11 Before getting the job,

1:13 chosen candidates underwent a public examination to investigate their character,

1:18 and those that passed would typically serve for a single year.

1:23 When their term ended, they underwent another public review to investigate

1:27 their conduct and financial dealings while in office.

1:32 This system was called sortition,

1:35 and its goal was to promote political equality.

1:39 In fact, Athenians saw lotteries as more democratic than voting,

1:44 since they believed elections favored the wealthy and well-connected.

1:49 Random appointees, on the other hand,

1:52 were ordinary citizens stepping up to fulfill their civic duty.

1:56 And since most offices didn't allow repeat terms,

2:00 sortition prevented people from gaining too much political influence.

2:05 Of course, this system was far from perfect.

2:08 Athenian sortition excluded women, foreign-born residents, and enslaved peoples.

2:15 And, as philosophers like Plato and Aristotle pointed out,

2:19 political decision-making requires expertise,

2:23 a quality that's difficult to develop in short appointments,

2:27 and can't be guaranteed by random selection.

2:31 But broadly, this lottery-based system had strong public support.

2:37 It was the dominant form of democracy during Athens’ Golden Age,

2:42 and it only truly ended when Athens’ conquerors abolished democracy altogether.

2:48 So if sortition provided stability then, could it do so now?

2:54 Political philosopher Alex Guerrero thinks it could,

2:58 and he’s even proposed a modern American

3:01 version of sortition that he calls lottocracy.

3:05 Here’s how it works:

3:07 rather than relying on one decision-making body for every issue,

3:12 Guerrero proposes multiple assemblies, each dedicated to a specific policy area.

3:19 These single-issue, lottery-selected legislatures, or SILLs,

3:24 are made up of hundreds of randomly chosen citizens who

3:29 get trained in their assembly’s topic area by experts and advocates.

3:34 Then, after consulting with the public to get their perspective,

3:38 the members of a SILL draft and vote on topic-specific policies.

3:44 This system extends all the way to the top,

3:47 distributing even the powers of the presidency across a network

3:52 lottery-filled Executive Assemblies

3:55 and the administrative officials they appoint.

3:58 Advocates of lottocracy believe it could address

4:01 three of the biggest problems facing modern democracies.

4:06 First, unequal representation.

4:09 Since successful election campaigns require money and influence,

4:13 many elected officials are much wealthier than the average voter.

4:19 At various points from 2014 to 2025,

4:22 half of US Congress members were millionaires.

4:27 Problem two: most candidates rely on donations from individuals, corporations,

4:33 and special interest groups who may try to influence their policies.

4:38 Lottocracy makes influence harder to buy by avoiding elections,

4:44 offering appointees generous compensation, and enforcing shorter term limits.

4:50 The third problem is a lack of policy making competence.

4:55 While career politicians juggle dozens

4:58 of policy proposals on countless complicated issues,

5:02 SILLs let their members become experts in a single topic.

5:07 As you would expect, this radical proposal has critics.

5:11 Political theorists Cristina LaFont and Nadia Urbinati argue that lottocracy

5:17 asks most citizens to defer to a randomly chosen few.

5:22 They believe that democracies should allow citizens to exercise

5:27 political freedom as equals— and elections are central to that.

5:31 Elections let people set the political agenda,

5:34 and they bind officeholders to a continuing cycle of accountability,

5:39 both at the polls and in the public eye.

5:43 In their view, voting is how citizens collectively shape and limit public power,

5:49 And without it, even the most competent

5:52 lottocratic government could feel like rule by experts.

5:56 Without elections, it can be hard to say what makes a system democratic.

6:00 But this debate highlights a shared goal:

6:04 we all want institutions that serve everyone and address real problems.

6:10 And just like every other element of democracy,

6:13 it’s up to us to keep experimenting until

6:16 we find a system that achieves those ideals.