A Political Theology of Sortition

Sortition, or election by lottery, has become one of the most viable and resonant alternatives to the liberal democratic procedure over the last decade, having been discussed in democratic theory and tested in democratic practice. There is a growing movement in support of supplementing or even replacing elections with sortition: even replacing elections with sortition, with theorists such as Dowlen (2008), Guerrero (2014), Landemore (2020), Van Reybrouck (2016), and Sintomer (2011), among others, coming in favor of it. Left-wing democrats see sortition as a powerful remedy against Northern democracy's legitimacy crisis as coming from the polarization between liberalism and “populism” (a dubious but conventional term for a very real tendency) as well as in the growing popularity of authoritarian regimes. This crisis is caused, among other things, by elitism, systemic inequalities, and by the democratic deficit built into the representative system from its very inception but increasing lately with the demise of communist utopias. One way to look at sortition is to see it as improving on the core elements of liberal democracy, such as equality, participation, and representation (taken as “descriptive” representation, or objective sampling of society, see, e.g., Gąsiorowska 2023, 3). As opposed to the merit-based elections, sortition results in a more cohesive form of representation that is open to the unprivileged groups. It produces diversity, and at the same time, mixture in the ruling bodies, but in a way that tends to destroy the existing group identities such as the embedded groups and parties (Malkin 2023). Another way, which I will explore in this paper, is to see sortition's randomizing procedure as an additional value and source of legitimacy. Thus, sortition is also a return to the ancient Greek democratic procedure. “Democracy,” a notion of the relatively recent invention in what concerns liberal representative government, has been the name of an ideal not always corresponding with its traditional meaning. Therefore, the turn to antiquity is an attempt to literalize the notion and to be serious about its use in the face of liberal democracy's current legitimation crisis. Antiquity is in the “past” in the sense of a promising origin rather than a drama or trauma. In contrast to the perception of democracy as an “end of history” (as in Fukuyama 1992), we should rather view democracy, with its U-turn in meaning from antiquity to the present, as a certain destiny of the West. Sortition may thus serve as a mechanism to unblock history. A ritual from the past returns, in a rationalized technological way, as a response to the rationalistic illusion of total calculability that the new liberal democracy risks falling into. Sortition fits in particularly well with the tradition of deliberative democracy, which has long been influential in democratic theory but not always efficient in making states correspond to its ideals. Sortition is a realistic instrument because it allows workable deliberative committees with some power to decide as well as to appeal to the majority, which, by itself, cannot immediately deliberate. We have more and more successful cases where sortition is used in this particular way: from participatory budgeting in municipalities, which has become almost a universal practice, to randomly selected constituent (law-making) citizen assemblies in Iceland, the Netherlands, Canada, and France, among other countries. More ambitious plans, such as the creation of sortition-based parliament chambers, are in the making. So far, sortition has been used for selecting assemblies and committees but not for appointing officials or for substantive decision-making (as it often was in antiquity). But, given the idea's relative discursive prevalence, even this (selecting officials by lot) may be only a question of time. To be sure, there are numerous arguments against the use of sortition and of lot-based deliberative assemblies (summarized, e.g., in Guerrero 2014, 174–178), from the standard appeal to a lack of expertise or to more complicated worries like the randomly picked members’ professionalization, the general public's loss of influence on the authorities, and so on. Additionally, most professional politicians currently oppose a radical expansion of sortition, such as the creation of sortition chambers. But, to this article's author's modest judgment, these arguments basically come down to the support for the status quo. These discussions have by now become widespread, and the reader is probably familiar with them. However, I see a relative lack of discussion, at least in English-language political theory, of a crucial aspect of the sortition: its symbolic, expressive, and ideological meaning. The instrumental reasons lying behind the turn to sortition, and its material effects, are, once again, obvious. But what are its symbolic effects? What ontology, what vision of politics lies behind this procedural form of assembly selection and functionary appointment? What does it express? What is the theory of polity that it projects, and how does it differ from the ideology of election, representation, and expert rule? What is the “change of mentality” (see Blok 2023, 307) required for the sortition procedures to become politically legitimate? It is more or less clear that sortition today is associated with a left-wing, radical-democratic ideology, and for this reason, it carries within it values of equality, rotation, and, sometimes, descriptive representation (if you randomly select a sample of citizens for an assembly). Landemore (2020, 80 ff) speaks in this regard of an expressive “democraticity” that characterizes the procedure. But is this all that there is in the symbolic and game-like form of sortition? One major aspect of these questions is, of course, suspicion about sortition's religious nature. This procedure openly appeals to non-rational and symbolized means of decision-making and, in the past, was often used for religious purposes, such as divination and magic. In this sense, one can say that like many concepts and procedures of modern politics, it is a fruit of secularization from a religious predecessor. However, it does not follow that there would be something substantive in the association of lot with religion. Many things have been used in in politics, and in But the is we that sortition is a as in other such this may on the one that it carries within it a religious with its and of and on the other that its appeal is in by its and so it to a democratic religion. In this paper, I a of the of sortition and of the I the between sortition and on the I sortition thus into the of the on the political and of democratic I turn to a and to the of the religious and meaning of sortition in Antiquity because the Antiquity is the of for the political sortition I the and meaning that this procedure would and thus what it would on to the and of In I also some on the of in political many that sortition is a that participation, equality, and it is to see that the procedure is from in its ideological and expressive meaning in the has a and to the of and even to in the sense of the democratic politics the of and this of with an of and is by associated with a of and in and cannot the complicated of even to by and the theory of The one where was of with it a new popularity of and of numerous such as or The of this in with its the lot-based in and in the and and thus only this new In the political use of lot its use in the to there was so used at the of Sintomer and that the from to the of power was in antiquity and the by the between power and and Sintomer In the modern in its to the of by in the of as a political the it today at the the of is on the of to in what the sortition theorists in one to be one as the lottery, even are not an in and and a theory of that into theory and In the same to with in of at which is to of and the material of the religious of with the the of destiny in the the of However, this was by a between a more and the of to on and even more than The of the with its of to the of the in and on the of a a in one of the and of and one that was to a and of In the same in only in to be but this has also to a of as and is used to for a in a of one does of a political as we will see in the it in the of of a or of a to be an and even in But this is to a a modern which at the same some has been antiquity as or The of these divination and in the and in the Greek Sortition was with The of destiny in the particularly with and may be as a rationalized and form of religion. The of was an of the of that would modern However, as the of with destiny in the ancient Greek was an rather than a having to with and as opposed to The of between a and an into the where it was most by of It was also was or the of it associated with the to it which in in the to with the of and divination coming from and the and often a certain Thus, the destiny that in Greek an (as in the of In the also a of a as its U-turn In some other modern destiny of a of the same The of sortition in ancient Greek politics, which in with the of was a not only to and of but also to to from a and thus to and the of thus power in and A turn of to the a is a material source of the of as well as of many on is a of The between and religious is obvious. have often been used in religious and and Sintomer one of many divination where an is to a meaning. the a religious of sortition: The from for the from Greek for Sortition also one to the question of or which is for the of the of the the of is such a into the which to these to which I the meaning of and response to of the questions is or that is, a one is to and there is this see This is but it does not the The more ancient response to this is or other objective One a and it by a mechanism that is to and and open to this procedure has an of a with an This an It does so in the very of that a or in the of a procedure complicated to be such as the and of the of a of which the are and the of a to are to A cannot or influence the a one elections, but more openly and than sortition and a of the as to the of The of a by the of the the of the one from a or the of a There is a certain Sintomer also speaks of a expressive of and associated with sortition in the a is to the is not only about but and more about ritual a ritual with symbolic sortition does what political ritual and the of the group that this meaning and Sintomer as well as the embedded in the the of the of the of the between and in as a which does not how it should and tends to and A major in favor of the religious of political sortition from the In The of the not only that sortition, and where into democracy, the of a ritual but also that elections, the currently political procedure in liberal are an symbolic ritual with serious and A from to election does not because sortition the and of election as an with Sortition, to for an that would legitimacy the of political power elections, in of the in the as Sortition is the of election, a of its To sortition's political and at the same religious we have to it to the What would sortition the of symbolic In in the lottery, as but the general way of and political thus the of and divination that the to The which is by the of the that the on its its and its to The is as to its It is at the same a and a the one in a is by its sense of can most the like and thus a of by in a in a and a of the on this the other most in on the of the are more or less in the as a of a on democracy not I would with that it is and even more a of to the in of to the symbolic In for have a of where the is or on I have the religious meaning of sortition as politically to liberal democracy, its into politics a that has often been discussed as Many have that liberal in of its or even and from the and its political This is a but some of these also and for and at the authoritarian of liberal as and the of see also and and look for more for democratic polity as also speaks of the return to the of modern democracy, which the of the into the This of is in a a of the In recent attempt to a political for democracy, not only in the for but also a democratic of particularly in its on sortition in this political as or it sense to look at the more more religious and with and of and The would be and the particularly and (see at and and in and political this is not at all are not However, in and in the of this it would be to the political and political even the from a and from a and and the of at the same time, from and in the face of a of In a to the of the influential of Another to is the religion. A by was discussed in the as a for an to for a to cohesive even in the of This a of the very use arguments rather than but it is to that many not only but also a to the of and the have to the political to see that the of cannot not Thus, sortition, like elections, are a religious or of will and a power of sortition, (a of or a of an is an even cohesive ritual than election because the of election and (see there is also a of its in sortition very of or the from which one the One cannot to politics, and to the political and There is also something like an of the of that is built into In of as and in recent was by many and to about as for in speaks of a political of as an of the of is a practice, a political that in with This ideology the of and even as it is to the of always a response (if not a of is by or of the that the and There are of this in even and in with its and the of as The is not the and but what its by the ideology that with and it to the existing power As I have in in to the with its of lottery, has for a long in the of the more such as and liberal that even in the the of has been relatively The of sortition today is, from the of view of its a democratic to the political and also a of the into One thus of a of democracy into an or a of politics to the that been in the However, is a of these The does also in the procedure of election that But it is as long as it is The political use of sortition it into the and allows the to the of that to over it There is a certain in a value of objective that allows to and sortition as a of ancient democracy that in contrast to and To sortition was a way to of political all to and be in there more to it than an efficient of and the past as more religious than the present, but many of these with in on sortition's and even in It is for to the very association of with However, it at the that this association is not It is more for to the instrumental of this procedure. Thus, Dowlen the as it was a It is a invention to or the to certain It has a of and that are very in certain and less in This instrumental and is in the current on sortition, from and Dowlen to Van Reybrouck and In for sortition, Van Reybrouck elections a of and sortition, particularly in its new form of deliberative to in as a technological In the sortition in democratic theory, one may the that the and technological of political is a But this is not There is in an almost in and is that political sortition has been a religious of the is in a by Sintomer and of the the ritual and religious of and selection in of to the between the and the and to the that often a religious In and the was between and was a and many political embedded within religious and Sintomer However, and Sintomer that a secularization of the procedure does So long as the it that this should be by to the will of the this to have in the of a of election which the not have to The like many Greek way than to but we not form a of this procedure the lot was not it was the of the as to it in the to the of the so the to it for the of its It was that the the most by making name of the This was the of on the lot is the and is to the and this we to be The of the be by in this way election will be to will what is to The that in this it its from the with but that sortition was not into democracy, and its association with the by may be an ideological this was used in the of government, and the democracy, and an to it as is often the for religious (see see also In this I this in the of political theory but would also like to the religious a more general question on the expressive meaning of sortition is a what is its The religious in does not an The meaning of a ritual is One can its the of that be for this ritual to have a meaning. one can the expressive value as in its very the questions of a symbolic a sense at the of the as we have with sortition an of a general that would in a or a As it is this that is most to be in But in the for which we to these and on the very form of we to look at the of the (see or with or used for to the for sortition and thus carries with it the A of and the in an that a of of a This procedure things, and an to rather than The use of a and to the in such as the or the of of the The are because not a of But the is so that the between the cannot be or which one The to the and with this its to a there a new one not to it in The procedure is with the new The most procedure used in sampling and in assembly selection is the on the This in the sense that the of the a to the one and But, as the the name also of in one as I have in the the of in selecting citizen assemblies and is not the not to to to the of in use to This is in a way to the of by the in the But very there is also a of selection by the to it to and to the representation of unprivileged groups. this a that it the of a procedure. I and that this to the and sortition's and ideological as a ritual sortition appeals to the values of and because the that sortition in to be and to be as by the between the of sortition and the to the the or which the of and the given by Sortition required of the to be as a the to its on a religious is also an aspect of this of the and the the for the for sortition was to and it was that was as As for the are and the the we and as we can and The are with a certain of Thus, that the movement is a of and and even to a of the Sortition as a of democratic thus not only to the democratic deficit but also to the for and in an and However, what has not been are the of is not because the again, will or but also because the of to from a to of as from to which in many a the of a with and the of to are and of a replacing for an objective of the with the association between the the and the of the We see something in sortition: is not It is in a of to a and movement of the same time, to this or I it was to and even only in the of some I say I not or not to the of the rather to the of a the of a return to The the turn the the turn is always the of the of to the or on the the of on turn to be it As opposed to the election on the of sortition will in to a of the These values and and are not the of ancient but are resonant with political which the new for a crucial value for over the last these and among others, the new are are and the same time, these an are to the As I have has been the ideology of the and was a in that we currently not only as a particularly The of (as we with as the in destiny also with the of particularly in its recent A in on the of the and in in and in the of and Sortition thus politics and in a of a new In its sense, of and in its sense, of the modern movement of is a and associated with liberal democracy and with its of as or as in political substantive of which the of of is one and of democracy openly the value of as a of But to this is a than elections, which the of a the objective of a and the of as in the is the of the where into the In a the and like a of and are not the and of in the of this paper, have a religious not in the sense that would to of destiny but in an A and is to a or This movement the and to like to a produces and to it a sense of The of destiny are not and not but we sense because the look The has a is to Thus, we with a form of which is and The is into the of politics the of in a way from with which is a more traditional form of political The in the system that this procedure would the on elements of into political and increasing the to which officials are in The and of political that where sortition are as a The by this the and of the of all of in the face of and as the of political and the of modern that and to sortition as a of selecting in liberal have only been However, the procedure is discussed and will probably be democratic values and to be the of democracy has become a and an of the and of the But, in the form of representation and it an more than practice. of and is to come on the the would be in favor of more as or there would be a serious of The to ancient where the of officials and the selection of assemblies was in a by the of equality, of representation, and of a between the and the and more of This is clear at least in I have that a return to sortition would more than an in and Sortition carries with it a that is to to the in the of or it a of and where the form of an has to all of the a of and However, even this is not the Sortition for the a of a religious that an appeal to of destiny and a form of that the These a for the There is to that we the it would these symbolic in its form of or sortition and that are so for modern values but become in a ritual of a democratic religion. A would to political and see this ritual as a appeal to the of A more and would rather an objective illusion or a material (see of which would a to and a in a and of vision would to a and only on a political this a of to the of It would thus a that was to the of as in and with its the new system would the with a new and thus politics, of it and a and system in the of and But, I that the system is with its of and the of be to Sortition an form of that open for its destiny and for a radical a in the of a traditional I would have to come with a in favor of or against political sortition, but this rather to the I only the reader to be of the and that a political of this is that sortition, not at all and is in a way there as a certain of and democracy, the one we for a with and we like it or we to sense of this all in a it. I to and other for and in this The of is not to this as or the current

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