Demarchy

Demarchy is a term coined by Australian philosopher John Burnheim to describe a political system without the state or bureaucracies, and based instead on randomly selected groups of decision makers. These groups, sometimes termed "policy juries," "citizens' juries," or "Consensus Conferences," would deliberate and make decisions about public policies in much the same way that juries reach verdicts on criminal cases.

Demarchy attempts to overcome some of the functional problems with conventional representative democracies, which in practice have often been subject to manipulation by special interest and a divide between professional policymakers (politicians and lobbyists) vs. a largely passive, uninvolved and often uninformed electorate. According to Burnheim, random selection of policymakers would make it easier for everyday citizens to meaningfully participate, and harder for special interests to corrupt the process.

More generally, random selection of decision makers is known as Sortition. The Athenian Democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery rather than by election.

Related links

• Brian Martin, "Demarchy: A Democratic Alternative to Electoral Politics," Kick It Over, No. 30, Fall 1992, pp. 11-13.
• Ernest Callenbach & Michael Phillips, "A Citizen Legislature", 1985
• Publications on demarchy and democracy
• Richard E. Sclove, "Town Meetings on Technology," Technology Review, July 1996.