吃瓜tv

On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, Demos21, a year-long series of lectures, roundtables and workshops organized by 吃瓜tv鈥檚 Center for Critical Democracy Studies (CCDS), hosted its sixth event of the academic year. Guest speaker Professor Annabelle Lever from Sciences Po Paris led a discussion on her forthcoming paper 鈥淒emocracy in Selection,鈥澛爓hich聽queries聽whether lotteries, rather than elections,聽would be a more democratic way of selecting individuals for political power.聽The hybrid聽event, which formed part of the Contemporary European Democratic Theory section of Demos21,聽saw audience members attend both in person in CCDS鈥檚 conference hall in the Quai d鈥橭rsay Learning Commons and online.聽

Dr. Lever鈥檚 position is聽that lotteries are,聽in fact,聽no more intrinsically democratic than elections. She argued lotteries聽have聽a checkered past and set forth a聽conception of equality that is purely distributive and聽too individualistic. While it is true that in electoral politics聽the聽criteria of competence are skewed in favor of those who already enjoy a certain amount of power,聽it is also the case that聽lottery systems offer an imperfect alternative. Lever鈥檚聽work聽engages聽with thinkers such as Iris Marion Young and Anne Phillips.聽

The case for lotteries聽relies聽on justifications that privilege equality of opportunity, rather than equality of outcome. It聽does not engage with compelling questions聽such as聽whether selected individuals would have the聽capacity and desire to serve,聽or what would be聽the consequences of such service. While inherently impartial, lottery systems may be ill-equipped to address structural problems that require commitments to equality that stretch beyond聽the realm of聽individual opportunity.聽

Lever also likened the flaws in the lottery system to those found within both the French republican tradition and American liberal value systems, as represented by the concept of colorblindness. In essence,聽such approaches neglect聽any special duties a society might have to take care of those who are in need, beyond that which is offered to anyone. Finally, she noted聽that聽lottery systems offer even less accountability than electoral systems聽when it comes to ensuring聽selected participants make and keep commitments to others within society.聽

Ultimately, she argued that her paper聽provided聽a variety of critiques at a time when lotteries are being聽proposed聽as straightforward improvements upon electoral systems.聽After her presentation,聽Dr. Lever addressed questions聽from the audience聽around the supposed legitimacy of lotteries and the potential centralization of fringe positions.聽