Sortition within political parties

Abstract

We argue political parties should select their parliamentary candidates by way of a lottery among their members. Alternatives such as party primaries, caucus votes, and elite selection create entry points for elite manipulation of the electoral process. While sortition for selecting parliaments directly has been said to control for elite capture, it is also likely to dissolve political parties and established voting blocs within parliament. This would undermine the democratic ideal of political parties, including their role in producing and implementing comprehensible legislative agendas. Sortition within parties, however, will not have that effect. Rather it promotes the democratic ideal by guarding against elite capture and stimulating internal deliberation in a feasible way. Voting will still weed out poor candidates in the general election. Party members should also be able to vote to retain successful lottery winners for subsequent elections to incentivize good performance and party discipline in parliament. We discuss the limited use of insaculación by the Mexican political party Morena as provisional evidence for the feasibility of our proposal. Show more