On Sortition. Comment on ‘‘Proposals for a Democracyof the Future’’ by Bruno Frey

Among the several thought provoking arguments for reforming democracy,Bruno Frey advocates sortition, that is, appointment to (some) public offices by lottery.Sortition was the hallmark of the direct democracy of ancient Athens. The paperassesses the Athenian practice of sortition by the criteria of representativeness, equity,partisanship, rent seeking, resource economy, and suitability of candidates for office. Itconcludes that, in view of fundamental conceptual differences between the Atheniandemocracy and the modern representative government, introduction of sortition intomodern representative democracy poses extremely demanding challenges.