Sorteo y política: ¿de la democracia radical a la democracia deliberativa?

Abstract

Selection by lot has had a political renaissance, allowing for the creation of mini-publics whose members can deliberate in close to ideal conditions. Is there a partial resurgence of the ideal of Athenian radical democracy? The article first summarizes the role of selection by lot in Athens, emphasizing its radical democratic logic and stressing its uniqueness in the premodern world. The second section argues that current experiments imply a substantially different political rationality, based on the representative sample, and offers a comprehensive typology of the various uses of political sortition. The conclusion explains the conditions according to which contemporary deliberative mini-publics could be combined with radical democracy.