This conference, sponsored by the Economic Planning and Democratic Politics project at the Neubauer Collegium, brings together leading theorists and critics of sortition: the involvement of randomly selected citizens in political processes. Participants will consider the value of and future prospects for decision-making by lottery-selected bodies. Can sortition address the failings of electoral democracy? Might sortitive institutions counter oligarchic power? Will citizen assemblies and mini-publics be democratizing forces, or do they themselves have troubling, anti-democratic features?


Participants

Alexander Guerrero (Rutgers University)
Cristina Lafont (Northwestern University)
Hélène Landemore (Yale University)
Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University)
Camila Vergara (University of Essex)