Democracy Without Politicians: Government By the People
Autor Terry Bouriciusen Limba Engleză Paperback – 22 apr 2026
Making the case that representative government can function better without the exclusive reliance on elections, the author sets out the problems with modern elections, the inadequacies of the commonly proposed reforms, and examines the cognitive biases, detrimental psychological effects and societal polarization that elections exacerbate. The book further delves into the progression of democracy and sortition in ancient Greece, and the abandonment of sortition in the framing of the American Constitution and French Republic. Finally, it sets out both immediate and long-term prospects for renewing democracy through the use of multi-body sortition.
Written by a former elected politician and policy analyst, this book will be of interest to students, researchers and citizens interested in comprehensive democracy reform.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781041125549
ISBN-10: 1041125542
Pagini: 292
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 mm
Greutate: 0.54 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: Taylor & Francis
Colecția Routledge
Locul publicării:Oxford, United Kingdom
ISBN-10: 1041125542
Pagini: 292
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 mm
Greutate: 0.54 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: Taylor & Francis
Colecția Routledge
Locul publicării:Oxford, United Kingdom
Public țintă
Academic and GeneralCuprins
PART I: The Current Situation 1 Democracy in Dysfunction 2 The Hopes and Claims of Democracy and Elections 3 Electoral Imperatives 4 The Inadequacy of Election Reform PART II: Foundations of Democracy 5 Historical Roots 6 Representation 7 Neuro-Politics 8 Competitive Electoralism 9 Participatory Democracy 10 Deliberative Democracy PART III Sortition 11 The Sortition Solution 12 Objections to Sortition 13 Accountability and Legitimacy 14 The Re-emergence of Sortition 15 Other Uses of Sortition 16 Sortition Design for the Future 17 A Transition to Sortition Democracy
Notă biografică
Terrill “Terry” Bouricius is a political theorist and recovering politician. From 1981 to 2001, he served as a City Councilor and then as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives. After a decade working on election reform internationally, his focus shifted to sortition. He has written influential journal articles on sortition, and helped found the international democracy reform organization, Democracy R&D.
Recenzii
"I've known and worked with Terry for decades, and his new book is a thought-provoking and deeply-researched take on how democracy might be reformed to genuinely allow government by the people."
Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate
"The likes of Jefferson, Madison, and Adams feared that an oligarchy of wealth, rather than of virtue and talent, might come to rule through elections. In this important new book, Bouricius meticulously explains why elections have failed to achieve democratic rule, or even the bare minimum of holding politicians to account. By reviving the ancient democratic tool of sortition—citizen juries—he shows us how to bypass the bought-and-paid-for political class and finally realize the promise of a government 'by the People."
Thom Hartmann, author and nationally syndicated radio show host
"I live in a small Vermont town where we govern ourselves--pretty darned well--by annual town meeting, where everyone participates. So I think we should take seriously the idea that governing doesn't require a special caste of life-long officeholders, and that all of us are actually up to the task."
Bill McKibben, author Here Comes the Sun
"This book pulls together decades of research and critique on random selection as a replacement for elections in democracy. Bouricius argues that the failure of elections is inevitable owing to the very nature of individuals and societies, then explains why choosing representatives through a sortition system can overcome these problems and deliver on the promise of democracy as the best means of governing ourselves."
John Gastil, co-author of Legislature by Lot and Hope for Democracy.
Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate
"The likes of Jefferson, Madison, and Adams feared that an oligarchy of wealth, rather than of virtue and talent, might come to rule through elections. In this important new book, Bouricius meticulously explains why elections have failed to achieve democratic rule, or even the bare minimum of holding politicians to account. By reviving the ancient democratic tool of sortition—citizen juries—he shows us how to bypass the bought-and-paid-for political class and finally realize the promise of a government 'by the People."
Thom Hartmann, author and nationally syndicated radio show host
"I live in a small Vermont town where we govern ourselves--pretty darned well--by annual town meeting, where everyone participates. So I think we should take seriously the idea that governing doesn't require a special caste of life-long officeholders, and that all of us are actually up to the task."
Bill McKibben, author Here Comes the Sun
"This book pulls together decades of research and critique on random selection as a replacement for elections in democracy. Bouricius argues that the failure of elections is inevitable owing to the very nature of individuals and societies, then explains why choosing representatives through a sortition system can overcome these problems and deliver on the promise of democracy as the best means of governing ourselves."
John Gastil, co-author of Legislature by Lot and Hope for Democracy.
Descriere
This book explains how electoral “democracy” is inherently undemocratic - enshrining rule by elites rather than popular self-rule - and argues that sortition (the use of random selection to form genuinely representative deliberative bodies) is a superior democratic alternative.