Representation By Lottery?

[Mythsaje]

From my blog

http://sajewilliams.blogspot.com/2005/01/representation-by-lottery.html

I received an e-mail today from a fellow civil liberties advocate that actually brought to the forefront of my mind a discussion my wife and I have had from time to time. One, oddly enough, that we happen to agree upon despite our somewhat different political views. She's a bit more conservative than I am in some ways, closer to a big "L" Libertarian than a Centrist like myself.

Anyway, our discussion goes like this. The United States is coming under the sway of a pseudo-aristocracy made up of--can you guess?--lawyers. Almost all of our elected officials in all three branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, are lawyers.

The vast majority of them come from families with political or monetary influence. And this is becoming more prevalent as time passes. It's hard to avoid. Deals are made, campaigns are financed, and people are recognized more from where they come from than for what they personally represent.

So here's a proposal to change all that. It would never happen, of course, since the Powers That Be (hereafter referred to as the PTB) would never allow it to happen, but it's certainly amusing to consider.

What if members of the House of Representatives weren't chosen by election, but, instead, were chosen by lottery? Only active voters of legitimate age would be eligible, but they might come from any walk of life. They might be white, black, hispanic, asian, wealthy, poor, straight, gay, Christian, Pagan, agnostic, atheist, or whatever. There would be no campaigning and no deceit on their part to gain the seat. They'd be truly representative of the American People.

Sure, you might end up with a couple dummies, or crooks, but, hell, we get those already. Anyone who's actually paying attention would know that. The lottery would occur ever so many years and be staggered slightly, so there'd wouldn't be a complete turnover each time. Say 1/3 of the body would be replaced every four years. They'd receive the compensation due them based upon the position as it stands now. Think of how many lives it could change for the better.

I don't have the exact details of how it might work, but I'm sure something could be figured out.

I'd love to hear a critique of the idea, either positive or negative.

Call me a kook if you want to, but I'm hard pressed to see a downside.

[merh]

1. My political science professor in college proposed the lottery

concept over 20 years ago. At the time, I was naive and thought how incredibly cynical he was and how silly the idea.

Now, I know why he felt so strongly that the lottery was the only way to secure our democracy and to salvage our nation. Each man/woman chosen must serve and in their service, they will fully appreciate the importance of the role of government. No campaigning, no politics, only service to the government and to the people.

[Mythsaje]

5. Thank you

what a wonderful response. It's nice to know that we didn't pull this 'dingbat' idea out of thin air.

It's funny...my mother-in-law (a consumate organizer if I ever met one) e-mailed my wife today, offering to do whatever she could to 'make this happen.'

I have to laugh a little at that. I know it's completely unconstitutional and the only way to add it to the Constitution would be to convince those whose vested interest lies in keeping things just the way they are.

[merh]

9. My political science professor was a child of the 60's, he

had been a part of the movement. He had long hair in a pony tale in the '80s when it wasn't fashionable to be long haired and big haired yuppies were fashionable.

I thought then he was nutts and even debated him, my love of the constitution driving me to point out how his concept violated it.

LOL, little did I know that today I would be thinking what a wise man he was.

It really has merit. It will never happen because those in power will never foresake their power, be it the admin or the outcast members of the opposing parties. Look what happened to term limits.

But we can dream, can't we. :hi:

[KnaveRupe]

8. I like.

Hmmm. I think it's a VERY interesting concept.

I think everyone's pretty much of a mind that the House, which SHOULD be the most representative body is actually the LEAST representative; that if your party doesn't have the majority, you have effectively NO representation. Witness the way the Republicans have abused the living bejeesus out of the Dems this past week.

I truly like the lottery idea, although looking at the lengths people go to nowadays to get out of Jury duty, I have a hard time imagining people willing to leave their jobs and move to Washington DC for 2 years. It would entail a pretty drastic hardship.

Use modern telecommunications and teleconferencing to create a virtual House? Let people serve from home? Maybe...

I've always liked the idea of making the House the part of our government that has true proportional representation - each state having a number of reps based on population, but those seats voted on at-large, rather than by district and apportioned to the various political parties based on the percentage of the vote they received. People would vote for a party's slate of candidates, rather than for individual candidates.

There's a reason that almost NO other democracies on the planet use a system similar to ours. And it ain't because they hate our system's inherent superiority...

[merh]

11. I like the telecommunications concept.

The "virtual house" is a great idea. Hmmm, I wonder what my professor would have to say about that?

[Mythsaje]

12. My father and I

were just talking about proportional representation today...he thought it was a good idea.

It's funny...we're in agreement on almost every subject, politically, but the one place we seem to disagree was whether it was necessary to take Saddam out. His main complaint was that he thinks the pukes in charge did it all wrong, not that it wasn't necessary.

<sigh>

Agreeing on almost everything else is pretty cool, though.

[Johnny Noshoes]

2. Lottery huh?

Now even though this is by your own admission just a kind of thought experiment it is fun to consider. I mean it makes for a better lottery fantasy than tossing a few bucks at the money lottery and wondering what you'd do with the cash. Hell win this one serve my two years in the house learn how things REALLY are and clear up some debt with the congressional pay - works for me :)

[Mythsaje]

6. As my wife just pointed out

not only that, but you also get a pension.

[Johnny Noshoes]

10. Yeah

and it would be better than depending on my 401 K in the Market "Lottery" :-(

[Johnny Noshoes]

3. Seriously

This is not such a far fetched idea. It would make each of us truly responsible for how this nation is run.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Worked in ancient Athens...

...they selected damn near everything except their generals that way, at least for a while.

[immoderate]

7. Surely not the first time I've heard this.

I think I remember a science fiction short story, where the ruler of the world is chosen this way.

I think it's gor its advantages, and would work as well as what we've got.

--IMM

[NMMNG]

13. Not a bad idea

It would certainly get government back into the realm of people who would be acting more as civil servants and not servants of their corporate donors and/or their own agendas.