Have a certain proportion of local, state, or federal representative positions selected similar to the jury system, where rather than being elected, a citizen is called to serve.
-- kevynct, Dec 05 2000

Mandatory Police Service http://www.halfbake..._20Police_20Service
Make take on this idea, though not in a political sense. [centauri, Dec 05 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

G.W. Hegel http://www.marxists...ive/hegel/index.htm
Hegel the prices [Qualiall, Dec 05 2000, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Draft First Term Representatives http://www.halfbake...m_20Representatives
[theircompetitor, Oct 04 2004]

Sortition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
Ancient Athenian version of Democracy [goldbb, Nov 11 2023]

Hadn't seen this idea when I posted basically the same thing five years later. Draftee_20President
Albiet with a few extra details. Still like the idea. [doctorremulac3, Nov 11 2023]

I think that G.W. Hegel had an idea similar to this--His basic philosophy was that society is progressing and at a certian point all people will be equally qualified to be leaders.
-- Qualiall, Dec 06 2000


This has similarities to Heinlen's system in Starship Troopers... except there nobody *must* serve unless they want to be a citizen. Then they are assigned where they are needed.
In any case, one would need adequite background and competence checks. Perhaps a (brace yourself) comitee could do these.
-- badoingdoing, Dec 07 2000


No... what happens when they pick some fat alcoholic frickin dub t (see Other:Words:Dub T) hillbilly piece of trailer trash? What will they do when he wants to wear his boxers and stained wife beater to the Congress meetings? And imagine the abuse of his franking priveleges and congressional immunity? This is why they have elections, to keep the lower, less intelligent caste OUT of office!
-- greensroom2, Dec 08 2000


This was practiced for certain offices during the "radical democracy" of Athens. Of course women, slaves, foreigners and the poor were excluded from the pool of selection, so what they called radical democracy, we might call the republican party.
-- Mungo, Mar 10 2004


Wow, I had now idea this was here. Related link(ed)

[Mungo] -- so you attribute the Republican congress to the success of exclusion strategies such as Motor Voter?
-- theircompetitor, Mar 10 2004


(tc) nah, it's just that as I was going through all the exclusions involved in ancient Athenian democracy I got the eerie sensation that I was detailing the demographics of the republican party.
-- Mungo, Mar 10 2004


These would be for the lower positions only, such as alderman, and city council, right? and from these lower positions, people then continue to VOTE, or otherwise choose qualified people for the higher positions... so the slob in his wife beater becomes an alderman for a few years, and that neighborhood, which is probably where he came from in the first place hate him, and when he tries to become a senator, nobody votes for him, and he goes back to his trailer... unless he actually does good things while he's in office, and maybe buys that nice gray suit, and suddenly everyone thinks he's an upstanding politician.
-- ye_river_xiv, Jul 20 2006


I would bring up the possibility of the inept and corrupt being inadvertently given power, but that would be like saying that someone might start a game of craps in Vegas.
-- Voice, Nov 11 2023


Unknowingly put up a similar idea years later. I think this really has to be looked into. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Nov 11 2023


At this point, throwing a dart at a list of everyone couldn't be worse than some of the leaders the world has had recently...
-- neutrinos_shadow, Dec 06 2023



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