Representative Democracy without Voters

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 374 B

José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon.  Representative Democracy without Voters (Previously published) Share Tweet Forward

We think of voting as the essence of democracy. Voting is supposed to install ordinary people in charge of a legislative process as representatives of the population as a whole. Thus, elected representatives should mirror the composition of society. As John Adams wrote in 1776, a representative assembly “should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large.” However, that does not appear to be the case. The membership of the 115th Congress reveals a profile unrepresentative of the population. For example, whereas the median age of the U.S. population is 38.1 years old, the average age of Members of the House is 57.8 years and of Senators 61.8 years. Of the 541 congressmen and women, 40 % are lawyers, compared with one percent of lawyers in the U.S. population. African Americans represent 12.1 % the U.S. population, but only one percent of Congress is African American. And, only 21 % of our Congressional Representatives are women.  Our Congressional Representatives are also better educated, putatively more religious, and wealthier than we are. All Senators and 94.1 % of House Members hold a four-year college degree, compared with 37 % of the U.S. population. And, 22.8 % of the American population is religiously unaffiliated yet, 98 % of Congress is affiliated with a specific religion. When it comes to wealth, 7.4 % of U.S. households have a net worth above $1 million, but nearly 40 % of our representatives are millionaires.  For better or worse, our electoral system does not produce a government populated by individuals who are genuinely representative of society at large. This is where the idea of replacing voting with “sortition” comes in. Sortition is a democratic form of government where, instead of voting for members of parliament or congress, representatives are selected at random from some subset of the population at large.  This concept of selecting public officials at random from a pool of candidates has a distinguished pedigree beginning in the Athenian democracy (507-232 BCE), Venice (697-1797), Florence (1328-1434 and 1494-1512) and Switzerland (1640-1837.) The best modern example is the selection of juries where potential jurors are selected at random from a qualified  population and then further examined to determine their qualifications and impartiality. Random selection has also been used by some countries to create advisory citizen groups.  In practice, before a random selection is made, the pool of eligible candidates must be defined. Many methods, such as screening by education, experience, or testing, have been proposed for developing a qualified pool of candidates as a subset of the population.  Sortition incorporates two key properties of random sampling: chance is impartial, and a large random sample reflects the characteristics of the entire population. Thus, sortition is more democratic than elections because those selected at random will represent more accurately the composition of the population with respect to personal characteristics and economic circumstances. Most importantly, the lawmaking of a randomly selected parliament is more likely to reflect the views of the population as a whole.  In principle, sortition is less corruptible than elections because chance can not be easily manipulated by money, power, or status. The Athenians believed elections to be antidemocratic and corrupt. As Aristotle put it: “It is accepted as democratic when public officials are allocated by lot [sortition]; and oligarchic when they are filled by election.”  Also, under most election systems, elected representatives rely on political parties to gain office, and are expected to vote along party lines. Their loyalty is split between party positions and their personal views. Representatives selected by sortition are not indebted to anyone for their positions. Their loyalty is strictly to their conscience.  As an approach to representative democracy, sortition makes us uncomfortable because it requires us to rethink the sacrosanct concept of voting. Yet, we use sortition to select juries empowered to make life and death decisions. Sortition may also make us uncomfortable if we believe that voting is a system to elevate the best of us to positions of power. Sortition does not do that, but then, do elections elevate our best?  Please let us know if you  this article. We welcome your feedback. Abrazos,  Lily & José  (click on the name to email Lily or Jose) José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon.  Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes? If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous, Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                                    BUY NOW Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas? Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo. Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                            Compre Aqui "Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous" Carlos Alberto Montaner Buy Now "Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo." Carlos Alberto Montaner Compre Aqui In Reflections on Freedom, José Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles. Buy Now En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico. Compre Aqui Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future. Buy now Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish. Buy now

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