David Edward Garber (@DaveGarber1975)

This TED-Ed episode explains sortition, which developed gradually from 580BC to 322BC in democratic Athens, in which citizens (except those who were female and/or foreign-born and/or enslaved) over age 30 submitted their names to serve in one of increasing numbers of public offices, not by vote but by lottery, from which those randomly selected were screened for good character, served for one year, were reviewed for good behavior, and were prohibited from serving again. Sortition enjoyed the advantages of overall political stability, as well as insulating elections from both popluarity and wealth, but it also endured the disadvantage of reducing expertise among public officers. This TED-Ed episode also considers a modern variation of sortition called lottocracy, devised by Alex Guerrero, in which citizens are randomly selected by lottery to serve on one of many councils (either legislative or executive), each of which is devoted to a particular category of public policy. Although I find these electoral systems interesting, I still prefer voting, and more specifically score (or approval) voting, which I understand is innately superior to ranked voting, which I understand is innately superior to plurality voting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDo4rW0DMpk #Elections #ElectoralReform #VotingSystems #Lottocracy #Sortition #Democracy #Athens #AncientGreece