Could random selection work in a modern democracy?

Question

Barring the insane and criminals(as now),do you think that
random selection has advantages over our mass representation system?

Answer 1

By random selection, do you mean, instead of election, just have a type of lottery using all eligible citizens to elect someone?

If so, I do not think that would be a good idea. There are many people that aren't good in leadership positions, exploit the benefits of said position, or wouldn't want said position. At least with the election system we have now we know that the last possibility will never happen, since if they run for office, they want it. The other two possibilities are kept in check by having people have term limits. That way politicians who aren't good in leadership positions are rooted out, along with those who exploit the benefits of said position.

Answer 2

This is such a funny question - I remember years ago having this debate repeatedly with friends. Upon graduation from High School, we decided, everyone would take an IQ test (or, when developed, some other basic intelligence test) and say the Minnesota Multiphasic or similar. Upon passing both at a preset baseline, (read: not an idiot, not a psychopath), your name would go into a hat. Serving in a public office would basically be like jury duty (but without the simplicity of weaseling out of it). We combined this with the idea of a triad executive branch (each president serving six years: the first two as basically a figurehead learning the ropes, two years on domestic policy, two years on foreign policy, then out).
While all of this appeals to me on some level (I love the idea of skipping all the dog-and-pony foolishness that an election cycle breeds), this is, by design, a representative democracy, and there's no guarantee that a randomly selected official would be representative of anything but his (or her) own beliefs. Unfortunately you don't have to be an idiot or a psychopath to be misguided, mean, biased in any one of a thousand ways, or any other of the multitude of sins undesirable in a leader. Not, for the record, that I think none of our present representatives are guilty of such things, but the election process does tend to force ones skeletons out of the closet. In the end, I'll have to sum up with a cliche - ours is the worst possible system of government - except for all the others.

Answer 3

Well one advantage of random selection over democracy would be the elimination of demagogue candidates. Of course once selected, a politician could still turn out to be a populist--one who tells the people what they want to hear while doing all the wrong things. (E.g. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.) And of course, random selection would not be any guarantee against stupidity...although our modern democracy doesn't seem to be either.

Maybe we should give all potential candidates an intelligence test. Make sure they know the fundamentals of such things as the importance of civil liberties, how markets work, taking opportunity costs into account when figuring the costs of programs, etc. More ideas below....

Answer 4

Of course.
If we randomly select someone to govern for a while, they have nothing to gain by doing well and everything to lose, they can't get re-elected. However, our current system ensures that someone who is at least pretty well educated will be in power. My guess would be that both systems would work about as efficiently as the other.

Answer 5

Nonrandom for who. As far as I know the democratic representation system ^is^ random. Do you really believe we KNOW who we are voting for. Are you suggesting we pull names out of a hat? If there was a clear and certain way of screening out insane and criminal people, we still got stupid to worry about.

Answer 6

No, please no! WE could end up with an 'Archie Bunker type! or worse yet another Bush like person! It aint perfect the way it is, but its better than what other countries have! ie A King ( been there, done that) or a dictator, oh wait ! we got one of those right now! Prime Minister, Emirs or Sheiks! I think I like to keep what we have!Thank you, very much!