Has any society ever tried random allocation of electoral candidates?

Neil3030

Would it help in removing parochial interest from elections and attract more macro level political competency? Or would you just end up with a situation where the randomly allocated nominees tow the same parochial lines. This isn't to say an element parochial interest doesn't have its place, but we take the pi$$ a small bit in this country.

It'd also be kinda cool watching the live draw on TV!

ResearchWill

I remember hearing a story a few years ago, don't know if it was true but I like it anyway. New Zealand had a commission on elections, they said that anyone who wanted to get elected was never the correct person to govern so a system like jury selection should be implemented, if nothing else it would be great crack.

Manach

The ancient Athenians had a system of drawing lots so as to appoint citizens to various positions (except Military) in a council of ten. The term of office was a year. Afterwards they were subject to an audit so as to check for any financial irregularites.
Overall the system worked quite well.

ei.sdraob

It would surely cut out institutionalised politicians who make a career out of milking the system for everything it got for themselves and their buddies.

oscarBravo

ei.sdraob wrote: »

It would surely cut out institutionalised politicians who make a career out of milking the system for everything it got for themselves and their buddies.

It seems strange to me, this idea that the main qualification for the job of running the country is to be unqualified for it.

Neil3030

Just to clarify, I'm not talking about pulling random punters out of a hat and putting them straight into office.

I propose that all parties (and the independents) announce their candidates for an upandcoming election and they are then randomly allocated to their consituency.

So you could end up with Michael Healy Rae competing in Dublin North; Mannix Flynn in Laois/Offaly; Charlie O'Connor in Cork North Central etc etc.

It would be the end of the single issue candidate, which is quite an important part of the democratic process imo.

oscarBravo

Meh. It sounds like an electoral list system, but with elements of reality TV thrown in.

A (partial) list system is a reform I think we should be working towards, but I'm not sure what we'd gain from the random element.

ei.sdraob

oscarBravo wrote: »

It seems strange to me, this idea that the main qualification for the job of running the country is to be unqualified for it.

What qualifications would this be? what qualifications would the likes of our gombeen politicians have?? most seem to come from teaching backgrounds with little to no experience of the real world outside their cosy and protected public service
These are the same people then who promise us jobs but never have went into business for most part and know a first thing about job creation. These are the same people who seem to have no grasp of basic mathematics.

Juries get selected by random and their job is to be impartial when reaching a decision with facts presented by prosecution and defence, the system works fairly well in most cases
Why would political decision making be any different? You are presented with facts and figures by civil servants and you decide on it, instead we get politicians who are prone to be lobbied and bribed whose decision making process is opaque and rarely based on facts/figures available.

Granted a background in history, science, politics and economics (and basic budgeting!) would be an advantage for a politician, but these could be taught to all citizens during their education (and should)

krd

Neil3030 wrote: »

Just to clarify, I'm not talking about pulling random punters out of a hat and putting them straight into office.

I propose that all parties (and the independents) announce their candidates for an upandcoming election and they are then randomly allocated to their consituency.

So you could end up with Michael Healy Rae competing in Dublin North; Mannix Flynn in Laois/Offaly; Charlie O'Connor in Cork North Central etc etc.

The Israelis have a kind of list system. I'm not sure how it works.

But in theory you could have a systems where all candidates compete nationally. And to get elected, you just need to hit a quota. It might just work out the same in the end.

Something that people forget, or are too naieve to realise. Well organised and funded political parties can game nearly any system to their advantage. Dave Cameron made that claim for the vote they had on changing the system in the UK.

Any system comes down to who can game it the best.