Elections vs. sortition - Is random selection the better choice?
Channel: Mehr Demokratie e.V.
Date: 13/12/2022

Elections are a primitive instrument with a crazy logic. They lead politicians to promise things they cannot deliver, says Belgian historian and democracy expert David van Reybrouck.

How can a democracy work efficiently at all and make sustainable decisions in the long term if politicians have to orient their actions to one thing above all else: They want to be re-elected at the next election.

In his book "Against Elections", Van Reybrouck describes this mechanism as "democratic fatigue syndrome". How do we get away from it? Perhaps completely new ways are needed, even if they seem quite unworldly at first glance?

Van Reybrouck's proposals take up a very old democratic principle that was already practised in ancient Athens: Sortition. In this event on 13 December 2022, David Van Reybrouck explains how this can practically make our democracy, which has become powerless, more lively today.

Learn more about sortition and randomly selected citizens assemblies here: http://www.buergerrat.de/en