Mad-as-hell Icelanders won’t be taking it any more

We hear very little of the on-going Sortition exercise which is on-going in Iceland. Here’s a piece from today’s Irish Times:

As part of a bold and ambitious initiative in active democracy, the first National Assembly was held in Reykjavik last month. Some 1,200 citizens randomly selected from the national register and 300 invited guests, including cabinet ministers and MPs, trade unions, representatives from the media and others, were brought together in a modern-style social partnership. The task of the National Assembly, comprising 0.5 per cent of the population, was to plan a future vision for the country. People were asked what sort of society Iceland should now build in the aftermath of bankruptcy.      

from 2005 (13 Dec): Sortition vs. Distributionism (Philosophical difference)

> Hi Ben, (Saunders) Oxford
>
> Great to hear from someone else toiling in the field – although I’m more  about using L to decide ‘who gets the prize’ (rather than L voting for who  should get the job of distributing the prizes.

from 2005 (9 Oct): Haberdasher’s School selects by lottery

Letters: Independent on Sunday 9 October 2005  Life is a lottery

The decision by Haberdashers’ Aske’s school to use a lottery to select its intake (“Schools lottery to foil ‘rich’ parents”, 2 October) is not unique. In parts of Lancashire they have been doing just that since 1980 and the system is in widespread use in parts of the United States.

from 2005 (28 June): New ed. of Goodwin’s ‘Justice by lottery’

From: Conall Boyle [mailto:conallboyle@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 28 June 2005 12:07 AM
To: b.goodwin@uea.ac.uk; bmartin@uow.edu.au; hey.wainy@virgin.net; Carson; alan.lockard@mail.cc.trincoll.edu; mike@allot.org.uk; oliver.dowlen@new.oxford.ac.uk; pjd.drenth@psy.vu.nl; pvjones@friends-classics.demon.co.uk; pstone@stanford.edu; subscribe-news@juliandibbell.com; vatchoum@web.de
Subject: Second edition of ‘Justice by Lottery’

Just published! A new edition of  Justice by Lottery  by Barbara Goodwin

 (250 pages £17.95/$34.90 1845400259 (pbk; 2nd edition) June 2005)

 Available from: www.imprint-academic.com

 As well as a new Preface for this second edition (the first edition was in 1992), there is an additional Chapter ‘The Lottery Revisited’. This covers many of the proposals for lottery use in the UK during the intervening years.

 

from 2003 (29 Oct): Astin recommended choosing students by lottery in 1969

>Dear Professor Astin
>
>I have just discovered a letter of yours to 'Science' dated 1969 (21st November). 
In passing, you advocated selecting students for college courses by lottery
 

from 2003 (21 Oct): Federal papers (US) 3rd house by sortition?

From: Carson [mailto:l.carson@econ.usyd.edu.au]
“I believe it was either Madison or Jefferson who proposed a third house of congress…
to be appointed by Lottery to oversee the other two.”     

from 2003 (21 Oct): Info about the Real Democracy Party UK

Posted by Lyn Carson: who received an email from Robin Clarke “The Real Democracy Party was registered with the Electoral Commission some months back, with a thumbs-up logo”

from 2003 (13Oct): Lottery returns to Athens: Olympic apartments

More than 17,000 low-income Greeks are crossing their fingers after entering a lottery to win one of the apartments used by athletes during the Olympics.

2003 20May: Two Yorkshire Unis choose students by lottery

Leeds Metropolitan and Huddersfield universities have both introduced computer generated ‘random selection’ for their physiotherapy courses. About 20 applications are received for every place on the course.

2003 3 Dec: Paper on sortition from Lockard; rent-seeking angle

Decision by sortition: A means to reduce rent-seeking ALAN A. LOCKARD   Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut 2002, U.S.A. Public Choice 116: 435–451, 2003.(November)