In his book The Party’s Over: Blueprint for
a Very English Revolution (2004), Keith Sutherland questioned the role
of the party in the post-ideological age and concluded that it would be
better for government ministers to be appointed by headhunters and held
to account by a people’s parliament selected by lot. This completely revised
and updated edition includes a study of the recent literature on deliberative
polling.
‘Sutherland’s model of citizen’s juries ought to have much greater appeal
to progressive Britain.’ Tim Luckhurst, Observer
‘An extremely valuable contribution.’ Graham Allen MP, Tribune
‘A political essay in the best tradition – shrewd, erudite, polemical,
partisan, mischievous and highly topical.’ Contemporary Political Theory
A Citizen Legislature by Ernest Callenbach
& Michael Phillips
The American founders proposed that their legislature should be ‘an exact
portrait, in miniature, of the people at large’. Whether or not this was
true at the time, the exponential growth of the population, skyrocketing
campaign funding, the power of pressure groups, the grease of the pork-barrel
and the dominance of charisma and demagoguery means that the US Constitution
could now better be described as a kleptocracy. This pioneering essay proposes
selecting Congressional members by random lot (leaving the Senate and Presidency
unchanged) to ‘restore a direct, powerful voice in Washington to the whole
of America’.
Originally published in 1985, this new edition includes an introduction
by political scientist Peter Stone.