What Should be Cut from the Draft of "The Trouble With Elections"
The book is under contract to be published by Taylor & Francis
Greetings to all! It has been seven months since I finished posting the draft of my book on the trouble with elections and the sortition alternative on Substack. The major publisher, Taylor & Francis, is going to publish it. To reach a wide audience they want the book to be no more than 110,000 words, but the current draft is 147,000 words. This means cutting out one quarter of the book. I am hoping to get advice from any of you on which sections (chapters or parts of chapters) are most crucial and which are least necessary. You can review the entire rough draft and check out the various chapters at the archive page here:
One option I am considering is cutting out these parts to cut out 37,000 words:
1. the bulk of the history parts (Ancient Greece, the founding of American and French republics, the history of juries, etc.) =15,000 words [Chapter 6 and the first half of Chapter 7]... leaving only a brief summary about history.
2. the details in the discussion about why commonly proposed election reforms won't work = 10,000 words [Chapter 4]
3. the limits of proportional representation reform = 2,500 words [Chapter 5]
4. the limits of participatory reforms (like referendums) = 4,000 words [Chapter 10]
5. the non-governmental uses of sortition (such as in co-ops, unions and schools) = 7,000 words [Chapter 15]
Each of these subjects would still be addressed, but very briefly. This would produce a book that is much more focused on the inherent failings of the current competitive electoral system (in terms of fundamental political psychology and lack of representativeness), and why sortition would work better.
You can use the "Comment" button below to submit any suggestions.
Also, I'll mention what I think is the most illustrative and elegant phrasing of the core concept in the text - "A key aspect of sortition is that it is not the individual members of the deliberative body who are individually 'representatives.' Each individual has no specific constituency. It is THE BODY AS A WHOLE that REPRESENTS THE POPULATION AS A WHOLE."
I would refer to this phrasing repeatedly, as it's a fundamental switch from our usual thinking about representation.
Congratulations on getting this book published. It’s an outstanding addition to the field. I quickly read your suggestions of what you might cut and my immediate reaction is that I think the non-governmental uses of sortition/deliberation are very important and should be left in. Government is so resistant to improvement in the U.S. that highlighting a multitude of other uses of sortition and deliberation—and giving real world examples—will widen understanding of its relevance—not to mention to give the book a wider audience.