the political potential of sortition a study of the random selection of citizens for public office
p the central feature of every true lottery is that all rational evaluation is deliberately excluded . once this principle is grasped the author argues we can begin to understand exactly what benefits sortition can bring to the political community . the book includes a study of the use of sortition in ancient athens and in late medieval and renaissance italy . it also includes commentary on the contributions to sortition made by machiavelli guicciardini harrington and paine ; an account of the history of the randomly selected jury ; and new research into lesser known examples from england america and revolutionary france .