Daniel Pink explores a reader's idea to fill Congress through random selection, like jury duty, replacing career politicians with ordinary citizens. The catch: special interest groups could become the real power brokers by showing up repeatedly while citizens rotate out.
This is Daniel Pink. I write the Why Not column for The Washington Post, where we propose and explore big ideas for remaking our country, our organizations, and our lives. We've gotten thousands of ideas from readers all over the place. Here's one from a reader in Salt Lake City who says, why not make Congress like jury duty? Uh-huh. If you meet the criteria, you would be selected to serve a term, which would give a broad cross-section of people representing regular America. This is a surprisingly popular idea among readers. It's sometimes called a lottocracy. In political science, it's called a sortition. I think it was used in ancient Athens. It has a surface appeal, right? We don't want career politicians. We want citizen legislators. I get it. The trouble is, is that the special interests, I fear, would take over because they would become experts. They would be there year after year after year after year after year while all these ingenues just passed through. But hey, I could be wrong. Tell us what you think in the comments.
