Posted byPeter Stone

Hello All,

It's taken me a couple of days, but I am finally putting in an appearance here. Many thanks to Ken and John for having me on the show, and I hope people found the topic intriguing.

Anyone is interested in thinking further about lotteries might want to check out the a new series of books being published by Imprint Academic. The series is entitled "Sortition and Public Policy." ("Sortition" refers to selection by lot--particularly political officials, as was the standard practice in ancient Athens.) There are a number of interesting titles in the series, including a reprint of a little book entitledA Citizen Legislature, which argues that we should select the U.S. House of Representatives by lot. (I have written a new introduction for the reprint, which will appear shortly.) For more on the series, visithttp://www.imprint.co.uk/books/sortition.html.

无论如何，我对通过抽签选出官员来将一点古代雅典带入现代世界的想法持谨慎乐观的态度。我认为这需要很多进一步的改变。在美国，我们不能只通过抽签选出国会，而其他一切都保持不变。我们必须做更多的工作来确保，例如，被选中的官员能够获得他们需要的所有信息。但这是任何对现状的重大改变都必须面对的实际问题。

More serious, I think, is the theoretical challenge. In the modern world, most people take for granted that being a democracy means that the people elect their officials through voting. But this wasn't the ancient understanding. Aristotle said that in a democracy, rulers were selected by lot, while in an aristocracy, the "best" are chosen through elections. (We don't usually think of our elected officials as being our "best," but that's another story.) That may be a little extreme; there's no denying that there's something democratic about elections. But there's also something democratic about lotteries, and explaining how 2 such radically different procedures can both be democratic is an important and interesting question, IMHO.

希望这能给我们一些启发。If you'd like to see more about my work, just visit my website athttp://www.stanford.edu/~pstone