Nov 6, 2026 · 1h 5m
Could random citizens govern better than elected politicians
694. Does Democracy Really Need Elections?
The episode tests whether citizens’ assemblies could make democracy more representative and deliberative while confronting serious questions about accountability, competence, and manipulation.
- 1Sortition could broaden representation by selecting citizens who would never seek political office.
- 2Experiments in Ireland, France, Iceland, and British Columbia show both the promise and limits of citizens’ assemblies.
- 3Replacing elections would create new risks around accountability, lobbying, implementation, and bad decisions.
Don't miss
Hélène Landemore describes watching divided, skeptical participants in a French assembly form a supportive community, revealing sortition’s social promise.
The brief
Stephen Dubner begins with a provocative question: could democracy work better without elections? The answer turns on sortition, selecting citizens by lottery rather than rewarding political ambition.
Hélène Landemore and Terry Bouricius argue that randomly selected assemblies could represent society more broadly and deliberate more thoughtfully than elected legislatures, whose members often share wealth and professional backgrounds.
The idea has deep roots in ancient Athens and modern tests in Ireland, France, Iceland, British Columbia, and Connecticut, where assemblies produced influential proposals with mixed results.
A Connecticut assembly on property-tax reform shows the model in practice: paid residents met over six weekends and issued ten nonbinding recommendations, including higher taxes on high incomes.
The strongest case for sortition is also its hardest problem: rotating citizens may reduce political self-interest, but who holds them accountable when their decisions fail?
Landemore recalls watching skeptical French participants become a supportive community, offering a vision of politics as solidarity rather than toxicity—though Dubner says hope is not enough.
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