Terry, it's unclear to me in this chapter if you think that the policy peeling method logically leads to constitutional or charter reform by sortition, or if you think that a separate, political movement is needed to work on constitutional change.
It seems to me that the peeling method can increase expertise, familiarity, and goodwill for sortition, but I don't think peeling logically results in sortitional constitutional reform. Peeling seems to be something that is comfortable and at the behest of politicians. I doubt that the mechanics of governing itself would be given up so willingly. The rhetoric and esteem of democracy has grown since the US revolution, but I think there are plenty of elites that still look with mistrust and dislike at the potential for increased democracy and "levelling" of wealth built on "passive income streams."
One way or another, eventually, I think we will need a grassroots political movement aimed at changing the constitution (the US, but other places as well).
"Having two classes of members in a chamber, one with no experience, often not a lot of self-confidence, and no agenda on the one hand; and the other class of members made up of self-confident professionals with partisan goals, who would likely seek to recruit the allotted members into their partisan caucus, and who also have a career path..."
"The logic of their legitimacy..."
Elected and allotted members have indeed two different (but equally valid) kinds of legitimacy, that stem from two of the possible meanings of the word 'representative'.
To move beyond a system of permanent-assembly, "a la Zapatista" direct government, a division of labor is required that sets apart a subset of citizens who will, for a given period of time, make decisions in the name of the whole group. Each citizen consents to this arrangement by tacitly subscribing a social contract, by virtue of which she renounces her natural liberty (cf. Rousseau) in exchange of an aliquot part of sovereignty. She can then decide either to cede her aliquot to an elected candidate that will be her representative, as in an agent-principal relation, or to keep it to herself as a chance in the lottery that will designate a number of representatives, in the statistical sense of the word, among those taking part.
Crucially, those who cast a vote have exhausted in doing so their individual portion of sovereignty and are therefore not included in the lottery pool. One could think that this will the preferred path for most of those with "not a lot of self-confidence". On the other hand, there are many articulate individuals not especially interested in sacrificing their souls for a political career but willing, if given the chance, to stand up to the "self-confident professionals" on an equal footing.
I do not share your pessimistic outlook of mixed chambers.
i have a young georgist friend who's interested in sortition, but also interested in running for local office and was wondering if advocating for sortition from office would be effective. would you have any advice for him? i did direct him here, maybe he'll follow through.
Terry, it's unclear to me in this chapter if you think that the policy peeling method logically leads to constitutional or charter reform by sortition, or if you think that a separate, political movement is needed to work on constitutional change.
It seems to me that the peeling method can increase expertise, familiarity, and goodwill for sortition, but I don't think peeling logically results in sortitional constitutional reform. Peeling seems to be something that is comfortable and at the behest of politicians. I doubt that the mechanics of governing itself would be given up so willingly. The rhetoric and esteem of democracy has grown since the US revolution, but I think there are plenty of elites that still look with mistrust and dislike at the potential for increased democracy and "levelling" of wealth built on "passive income streams."
One way or another, eventually, I think we will need a grassroots political movement aimed at changing the constitution (the US, but other places as well).
"Having two classes of members in a chamber, one with no experience, often not a lot of self-confidence, and no agenda on the one hand; and the other class of members made up of self-confident professionals with partisan goals, who would likely seek to recruit the allotted members into their partisan caucus, and who also have a career path..."
"The logic of their legitimacy..."
Elected and allotted members have indeed two different (but equally valid) kinds of legitimacy, that stem from two of the possible meanings of the word 'representative'.
To move beyond a system of permanent-assembly, "a la Zapatista" direct government, a division of labor is required that sets apart a subset of citizens who will, for a given period of time, make decisions in the name of the whole group. Each citizen consents to this arrangement by tacitly subscribing a social contract, by virtue of which she renounces her natural liberty (cf. Rousseau) in exchange of an aliquot part of sovereignty. She can then decide either to cede her aliquot to an elected candidate that will be her representative, as in an agent-principal relation, or to keep it to herself as a chance in the lottery that will designate a number of representatives, in the statistical sense of the word, among those taking part.
Crucially, those who cast a vote have exhausted in doing so their individual portion of sovereignty and are therefore not included in the lottery pool. One could think that this will the preferred path for most of those with "not a lot of self-confidence". On the other hand, there are many articulate individuals not especially interested in sacrificing their souls for a political career but willing, if given the chance, to stand up to the "self-confident professionals" on an equal footing.
I do not share your pessimistic outlook of mixed chambers.
i have a young georgist friend who's interested in sortition, but also interested in running for local office and was wondering if advocating for sortition from office would be effective. would you have any advice for him? i did direct him here, maybe he'll follow through.
Elections will be around for quite a while... Having sortition advocates in any place where people listen to what they have to say is beneficial.