A Citizen Legislature/A People's Parliament (Luck of the Draw: Sortition and Public Policy) (Hardcover)

A Citizen Legislature/A People's Parliament (Luck of the Draw: Sortition and Public Policy) By Ernest Callenbach, Michael Phillips, Keith Sutherland Cover Image

A Citizen Legislature/A People's Parliament (Luck of the Draw: Sortition and Public Policy) (Hardcover)

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Two essays, printed back to back in a single volume, offer complementary solutions to the democratic deficit in Britain and the USA. In his book The Party's Over: Blueprint for a Very English Revolution (2004), Keith Sutherland questioned the role of the party in the post-ideological age and concluded that it would be better for government ministers to be appointed by headhunters and held to account by a people's parliament selected by lot. This completely revised and updated edition includes a study of the recent literature on deliberative polling. The American founders proposed that their legislature should be 'an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large . Whether or not this was true at the time, the exponential growth of the population, skyrocketing campaign funding, the power of pressure groups, the grease of the pork-barrel and the dominance of charisma and demagoguery means that the US Constitution could now better be described as a kleptocracy. This pioneering essay proposes selecting Congressional members by random lot (leaving the Senate and Presidency unchanged) to 'restore a direct, powerful voice in Washington to the whole of America . Originally published in 1985, this new edition includes an introduction by political scientist Peter Stone.


Product Details ISBN: 9781845401382
ISBN-10: 1845401387
Publisher: Imprint Academic
Publication Date: August 1st, 2008
Pages: 350
Language: English
Series: Luck of the Draw: Sortition and Public Policy