Abstract
This article analyzes the use of sortition in politics from a genealogical and contemporary perspective. It aims to reflect on this mechanism, little known in Latin America, which randomly selects citizens to make decisions. The article shows how this idea originated in ancient Greece and was later used in Renaissance Italy, until it was rejected by the modern republics. It shows how selection by lot was rescued in the 1970s amid debates about the crisis of representation and the rise of deliberative democracy, presenting as a novelty the use of the representative sample, as in citizen juries, planning cells, and deliberative opinion polls. The article reveals the dynamics surrounding these minipublics and the field of experimentation that has stemmed from them. It analyzes the criticisms that these mechanisms have received, especially as regards skepticism about the knowledge of ordinary citizens and the fact that random selection prevents the spontaneous participation of society. Recent examples are presented, such as participatory budgeting in Berlin and the Irish constitutional amendment, which provide an empirical basis not only to counter such arguments, but to show that sortition has become a viable alternative in politics.
sortition; minipublics; deliberative democracy; social participation; political representation