JuniJuin Enero

After diplomatic efforts failed and Khmer Rouge attacks continued, Vietnam decided to use conventional military force to remove the hostile, pro-Chinese government.

Diverse groups of non-experts, under good deliberative conditions (inclusivity, information, time, equality), often outperform homogeneous elites or individuals due to cognitive diversity and the “wisdom of crowds”

Elections test the wrong skills (campaigning, charisma, networking) and undersample quieter virtues like thoughtfulness, patience, honesty, or empathy. They create a “spectator sport” where most people feel powerless

Politicians are detached from ordinary life, captured by special interests/donors, obsessed with fundraising and reelection, prone to empty promises, groupthink, polarization, and elite capture.

self-perpetuating professional political class—often wealthy, well-connected, ambitious, charismatic, and power-oriented

What if we didn’t need professional politicians at all? What if, under the right conditions, ordinary citizens could govern better—smarter, fairer, and more forward-thinking—than the current electoral system allows?

Power should be vested in large, randomly selected deliberative bodies that remain connected to the broader public via crowdsourcing and digital platforms.

Electoral systems create a "gated" democracy dominated by detached political elites and special interests.

Political power must be a temporary responsibility shared by all citizens, not a permanent profession.

Cognitive diversity leads to better problem-solving and more legitimate policy outcomes than relying on small groups of experts.

Modern representative democracy is gated and dominated by a political elite who are detached from the public and beholden to special interests.

Politics Without Politicians by Yale political scientist Hélène Landemore

The solution is not necessarily abolishing all elections tomorrow, but introducing meaningful lottery-based bodies at every level of government (national to local), so that ordinary citizens expect to serve at least once in their lives.

history shows elections have produced more polarization (including the Civil War) while Athenian democracy proved remarkably durable for ~200 years until external conquest by Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great.

150 randomly selected citizens produced 149 ambitious climate proposals — notably without a carbon tax that politicians had insisted was the only solution.

Serving alongside random strangers builds cross-cutting social bonds and civic pride. Elections sort people into permanent opposing teams from day one. Lottery forces collaboration.

Athenians used peer audits by ordinary citizens. Accountability was socialized, not institutionalized through distant watchdogs. Modern elections have failed to prevent corruption.

Cognitive diversity beats individual expertise. Research (e.g., Scott Page) shows randomly selected groups often outperform groups of "the best" experts because diverse perspectives reduce blind spots and groupthink. Elections select for similarity; lotteries select for diversity.

Random selection produces a statistically representative sample of society (farmers, sailors, merchants, laborers, and the wealthy). Elections produce a narrow, homogeneous elite.

elections force people into opposing teams