Skip to main content
A Randomly Selected Chamber: Promises and Challenges

Abstract

This paper explores the idea of a randomly selected chamber of representatives (RSC) through an appreciation of the promises it offers and the challenges it would face. We identify two main promises: a RSC could offset the aristocratic character of elections, thereby increasing the legitimacy of the political system; and it could increase democracy’s epistemic potential, thanks to gains in terms of diversity, deliberations, humility, and long-term perspective. We then discuss four key challenges. First, participation: how can the chamber have diversity without mandatory participation or heavy sanctions? Second, how can we conceive or build legitimacy for this non-elected and somehow unaccountable chamber’s views? Third, independence: how to safeguard randomly selected people from corruption? Finally, there may be a linguistic challenge: if the RSC has a deliberative role, how should it cope with the possible linguistic diversity of its members? We conclude that these challenges are not insurmountable, but reveal some trade-offs that cannot be entirely dissolved.

Keywords

independence, legitimacy, participation, deliberation, representation, sortition

How to Cite

Vandamme P. & Verret-Hamelin A., (2017) “A Randomly Selected Chamber: Promises and Challenges”, Journal of Public Deliberation 13(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.271

1591

Views

482

Downloads

10

Citations

Share

Authors

Pierre-Etienne Vandamme orcid logo (University of Louvain, Belgium)
Antoine Verret-Hamelin (Université Laval, Canada)

Downloads

Issue

Publication details

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Identifiers

Peer Review

This article has been peer reviewed.

File Checksums (MD5)

  • PDF: fa9f2420618d78e1a6244f993b18d394