New Ways of Looking at Democracy

• Author: Brett Hennig
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/bl.30049
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• Date: 01 July 2016

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NUMBER 146, JULY–AUG. 2016

www.boardleadershipnewsletter.com

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New Ways of Looking

at Democracy

by Brett Hennig

Dr. Brett Hennig is the cofounder and director of the Sortition Foundation

(http://www.sortitionfoundation.org/). This is an edited extract from his new

book, The End of Politicians, to be published by Unbound in late 2016

(https://unbound.co.uk/books/the-end-of-politicians/).

BOARD LEADERSHIP

INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO GOVERNANCE

View this newsletter online at wileyonlinelibrary.com

Board Leadership • DOI: 10.1002/bl • July-Aug. 2016

Democracy, in modern times, has

become synonymous with elec-

tions. This was not always the case.

In ancient Athens, and for almost two

thousand years afterwards, it was

synonymous with random selection,

or sortition. Modern experiments with

new ways of doing democracy, from

Policy Juries to Citizens’ Assemblies

to Constitutional Councils are harking

back to the days of ancient Athens

and sortition is undergoing a revival

of use and an explosion of interest.

Together with guardianship this

gives three principal ways of selecting

those who govern:

•Election

•Random selection (sortition)

•Guardianship (or meritocracy)

What are the pros and cons of these

differing selection methods? What are

their histories? Where do they derive

their legitimacy from, and what might

boards learn from understanding the

differences? These are some of the

questions addressed below.

The political appeal of sortition

was so obvious, to ancient Greek men

at least, that it was by far their most

commonly used process for allocat-

ing political posts. While the ancient

Athenian assemblies are surely the

most famous of early legislatures, it

is less well known that the proposals

for debate were usually developed by

a randomly selected Council of Five

Hundred (the boule), each of whom

served office for one year only.

An extensive system to fill the vast

majority of the public offices used the

drawing of lots and strictly limited

terms of office to decide who was to

be a magistrate, who was to serve on

the courts and in the boule. Election

was reserved for those few positions

where narrow, specialist skills were

deemed necessary, such as heads of

finance and military leaders.

Key thinkers, from Aristotle

(384–322 BC) all the way to Rousseau

(1712-1778 AD) and Montesquieu

(1689–1755 AD), consistently linked

democratic government with selection

sEptEmBEr 17–20, 2016

National Association

of Corporate Directors

(NACD) 2016 Global Board

Leaders’ Summit

— Washington, DC, USA

For more information see: https://

www.nacdonline.org/Conference/

content.cfm?ItemNumber=4755

sEptEmBEr 28, 2016

How Policy Governance®

Boards Can Best Ensure

Healthy Organizational Culture

— By Video-Conference

(12 noon – 2 p.m. Eastern)

A discussion for Policy Gov-

ernance Consultants and board

and staff members with extensive

experience in using the system.

For more information, please

contact: ceo@policygovernance

association.org

octoBEr 11 2016

Getting to “One Voice”

— By Video-Conference

(11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Eastern)

An interactive learning event

with Craig Freshley of Good

EVENTS

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