From James Bridle's Ways of Being: > The Athenians believed that the principle of sortition was critical to democracy. Aristotle himself declared that: "It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot; and as oligarchic when they are filled by election." The *kleroterion* was a device that allowed for the random selection of citizens to serve on various governing bodies: city boards, judges, legislators, and the ruling council of the state, the Boule. > When Ferdinand II added the Kingdom of Castile to his Kingdom of Aragon, becoming the first de facto King of Spain, he acknowledged that ‘cities and municipalities that work with sortition are more likely to promote the good life, a healthy administration and a sound government than regimes based on elections. They are more harmonious and egalitarian, more peaceful and disengaged with regard to the passions.’ Sortition is not a solely European invention; neither has it always been administered by, or held captive by, the aristocracy. In the rural villages of Tamil Nadu, a system of governance called kudavolai dates back at least to the Chola period, over a thousand years ago. Its mechanism involves writing the names of committee candidates on palm leaves and then having a child pull them out at random. It is still in use in regional elections today. In North America, sortition was used by the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, a political association of five nations originating around 1100 CE and lasting well into the colonial period until driven off its lands by European settlers. Led by female clan heads, the Confederacy preferred to operate through cooperation and consensus (the word ‘caucus’ comes from an Algonquin word meaning an informal discussion without the need for a vote), but when a vote was called for, it followed the principles of sortition. This ensured that all the clans were represented equally and that none could achieve dominion over any other. The Iroquois Confederacy was probably one of the healthiest and most equitable societies of its time, in terms of wealth distribution and access to resources. Its ideas are believed to have influenced Benjamin Franklin, who had personal dealings with the Confederacy, and therefore the modern Constitution of the United States. --- Five Books recommendations on Sortition: https://fivebooks.com/best-books/citizen-assemblies-hugh-pope/ - https://www.everand.com/read/636528026/The-Keys-to-Democracy-Sortition-as-a-New-Model-for-Citizen-Power - https://www.everand.com/read/532146527/Open-Democracy-Reinventing-Popular-Rule-for-the-Twenty-First-Century -