Thread by @swardley

X : You argue for sortition?
Me : A democratic system (with debates, majority voting, two representative houses) but representatives chosen by lottery not by election i.e. 4 people from each region, giving 2.600 MPs serving for 4 years with 1/4 replaced each year ...

... the problem we have is that elections do not create a representative parliament, there are lots of barriers to becoming an MP etc. We have 90k people in my district and our MP is Damian Collins ... as far as I can tell, random selection would on average find someone better.

So, 4 people selected at random from each district, each serving for four years with 1/4 replaced each year ... I can't see how you wouldn't end up with a better quality of candidates in the houses of parliament and a more effective government.

X : Could it happen?
Me : Not a chance. Too much self interest. It might be possible to get sortition into the house of lords but that'll be struggle and probably not in my lifetime.

X : Is there another way?
Me : For creating a truly representative democracy? No. It's either random selection or you end up with biases which includes privileges etc.

You could do a bit of both as per Athenian democracy, birthplace of modern democracy. Most representatives were chosen by sortition (random lot) with elections for positions that required specialised skills. Given MPs are general, I can't see why you wouldn't use sortition.

As Aristotle explained, random selection (the lot) leads to democracy, elections (the vote) leads to oligarchy.

To be blunt, look at the 650 MPs we have in parliament. Are you really going to say that's the best of the best of 65 million people? Hogwash. Random selection could do better.

Me : The problem is, it takes a special kind of leader to act and vote against their own self interest and ego in favour of wider societal or system interests. Someone like Haier's CEO Zhang Ruimin is a very rare person. Wonderful to see but very rare.
X : Haier?

Me : Huge company. The future of enterprises. An early prototype of leaderless leadership. As Ruimin said "we no longer try to delegate to, or ‘empower’, employees. It’s now time for every employee to be his or her own boss” ... and these are more than just words.

X : So, we need the Zhang Ruimin of politics?
Me : Yep. Someone who goes through a system built on exclusion, rises to the very top and then dismantles the system to build a more effective system based upon inclusion. As I said, not in my lifetime. Maybe one day.