Books
Against Sortition?
£35.00
Sortition is widely used in our political systems to constitute citizen panels. It is now possible to study the limits of this method of selecting our political representatives. This book presents the institutionalisation of sortition while questioning its political consequences in terms of representation and deliberation. Several examples are used, such as the Citizens’ Climate Convention in France and the Conference on the Future of Europe. In the end, the book helps to identify the consequences of using sortition with regard to the principles of equality and inclusion. Above all, it offers readers the possibility of continuing to reflect on this method of random selection, while promoting the implementation of greater equality between citizens.
300 pp.
Hardback £35.00
Sortition is widely used in our political systems to constitute citizen panels. It is now possible to study the limits of this method of selecting our political representatives. This book presents the institutionalisation of sortition while questioning its political consequences in terms of representation and deliberation. Several examples are used, such as the Citizens’ Climate Convention in France and the Conference on the Future of Europe. In the end, the book helps to identify the consequences of using sortition with regard to the principles of equality and inclusion. Above all, it offers readers the possibility of continuing to reflect on this method of random selection, while promoting the implementation of greater equality between citizens.
Yves Sintomer, professor of political science, Paris 8 University, and author of The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present –
“This book represents the first comprehensive attempt to scrutinize the theoretical challenges that the return of sortition in politics has to face. Anyone interested in the issue should read it.”
Samuel Hayat, CNRS researcher in political science, Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po (CEVIPOF) –
“This book offers a critical analysis of the democratic potential of sortition, based on in-depth theoretical reflections and an uncompromising assessment of citizens’ panels. Far from closing the debate, it will undoubtedly serve as a reference for future discussions.”
Antoine Chollet, Université de Lausanne –
“Against Sortition? — the quotation mark is of course of the utmost importance — provides a complete critical examination of selection by lot in politics, at safe distance from both the eccentric apologetic endorsements of the procedure we sometimes read, and the equally unconvincing contempt it still faces in academia and civic discourse. Let’s hope that this book will mark the coming of age of studies on sortition and lotteries.”
Peter Stone, author of The Luck of the Draw: The Role of Lotteries in Decision Making (Oxford University Press) –
“Against Sortition? is an essential part of the contemporary conversation about this important new democratic institution.”
Dave Clements, Conservative Woman –
“For all the talk of citizens being given the opportunity to make decisions about the big issues of the day, in truth the aversion to free and open-ended debate has only hardened. All the more reason, this bumper election year, to extend democratic accountability into every nook and cranny of institutional and public life. This book is an invaluable contribution to thinking about what that might look like.”
Niall Gooch, The Catholic Herald –
“All this came to mind recently as I read a fascinating book called Against Sortition?”