1st Edition
Democracy Without Politicians Government By the People
PART I: The Current Situation
1 Democracy in Dysfunction
2 The Hopes and Claims of Democracy and Elections
3 Electoral Imperatives
4 The Inadequacy of Election Reform
PART II: Foundations of Democracy
5 Historical Roots
6 Representation
7 Neuro-Politics
8 Competitive Electoralism
9 Participatory Democracy
10 Deliberative Democracy
PART III Sortition
11 The Sortition Solution
12 Objections to Sortition
13 Accountability and Legitimacy
14 The Re-emergence of Sortition
15 Other Uses of Sortition
16 Sortition Design for the Future
17 A Transition to Sortition Democracy
Biography
Terrill “Terry” Bouricius is a political theorist and recovering politician. From 1981 to 2001, he served as a City Councilor and then as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives. After a decade working on election reform internationally, his focus shifted to sortition. He has written influential journal articles on sortition, and helped found the international democracy reform organization, Democracy R&D.
"I've known and worked with Terry for decades, and his new book is a thought-provoking and deeply-researched take on how democracy might be reformed to genuinely allow government by the people."
Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate
"The likes of Jefferson, Madison, and Adams feared that an oligarchy of wealth, rather than of virtue and talent, might come to rule through elections. In this important new book, Bouricius meticulously explains why elections have failed to achieve democratic rule, or even the bare minimum of holding politicians to account. By reviving the ancient democratic tool of sortition—citizen juries—he shows us how to bypass the bought-and-paid-for political class and finally realize the promise of a government 'by the People."
Thom Hartmann, author and nationally syndicated radio show host
"I live in a small Vermont town where we govern ourselves--pretty darned well--by annual town meeting, where everyone participates. So I think we should take seriously the idea that governing doesn't require a special caste of life-long officeholders, and that all of us are actually up to the task."
Bill McKibben, author Here Comes the Sun
"This book pulls together decades of research and critique on random selection as a replacement for elections in democracy. Bouricius argues that the failure of elections is inevitable owing to the very nature of individuals and societies, then explains why choosing representatives through a sortition system can overcome these problems and deliver on the promise of democracy as the best means of governing ourselves."
John Gastil, co-author of Legislature by Lot and Hope for Democracy.
