Brett Hennig: What if we replaced politicians with randomly selected people?
بريت هينيغ: ماذا لو قمنا باستبدال السياسيين بأشخاص عاديين من المجتمع نختارهم بعشوائية؟
Brett Hennig co-founded and directs the Sortition Foundation, which campaigns to institute the use of stratified, random selection (also called sortition) in government. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
one of the big questions,
who perhaps live in a city
التي ربما تعيش في مدينة
the rules that govern us?
an important question.
it's even more important than ever
من أي وقت مضى
عدم المساواة المتزايد،
climate change, the refugee crisis,
themselves this question
in organized societies.
for the greater good of everyone.
تخدم الصالح العام للجميع.
أن بإمكانهم القيام بذلك،
they could be those guardians,
عند اندلاع الثورات،
they tended to lose their heads.
his answer of how to live together.
a different kind of answer,
into hibernation for 2,000 years,
at the modern history of democracy,
على التاريخ الحديث للديمقراطية،
to put the last 200 years.
the number of democracies.
of democracy's triumph,
عام 1989،
the end of history,
أننا وصلنا إلى نهاية التاريخ،
has been answered,
قد وجدنا إجابة له،
living in a democracy is a good thing?
في ظل نظام ديمقراطي أمر جيد؟
keep your hands down.
يبقي يديه أسفل.
الذين لم يرفعوا أيديهم،
who didn't raise their hands,
are functioning well?
in the audience somewhere.
في مكان ما.
is the end of history,
إذا كانت هي نهاية التاريخ،
or contradiction here.
is about the ideal of democracy,
كان عن الديمقراطية المثالية،
are very appealing.
our politicians aren't trusted,
by powerful vested interests.
to resolve this paradox.
لأنها لم تنجح.
it doesn't work.
who will ignore democratic norms,
شعبويا سيتجاهل الديمقراطية،
is to fix this broken system,
هذا النظام المكسور،
أقرب إلى المثالية
in our parliaments
evidence-based laws
قائمة على الأدلة
"Why wouldn't this work?"
afterwards about it.
and put them in parliament.
for a few more minutes, shall we?
and you and you and you down there
for the next couple of years.
بطريقة جيدة لتمثيلنا
to make sure that it matched
profile of the country
والاقتصادي والديمغرافي للبلد
sample of people.
some would be old,
ordinary people like you and me.
أناسًا عاديين مثلي ومثلك.
من المجتمع.
how we would all think,
للقرارات السياسية.
the moral crux of political decisions.
قد لا تكون في تلك المجموعة،
someone of your gender,
and someone with your background
would build on the wisdom of crowds.
ستكون مبنية على الحكمة.
than the sum of their parts.
لا على القمة.
that diversity can trump ability
يمكن أن يفوق المهارة
of societal questions and problems.
عن استطلاع للرأي العام.
by public opinion poll.
would move beyond public opinion
سيتجاوزون الرأي العام
one major side effect:
truly representative of society,
pretty sad to see that.
of how democracy was done
من الديمقراطية
is called a kleroteria.
يسمى (كليروتيريا).
random-selection device.
randomly selected citizens
عشوائيا
of their political posts.
were aristocratic devices.
تخدم الطبقة الأرستقراطية.
were a thing to be avoided.
تفادي السياسيين.
the ancient use of random selection
من الاستخدام القديم للاختيار العشوائي
of random selection in politics
في السياسة
too many examples to talk about.
that it's going to be difficult
أنه سيكون من الصعب
with randomly selected people."
بأشخاص يتم اختيارهم عشوائيا".
separate his recycling."
لإعادة تدويرها".
but overwhelming and compelling evidence
they act responsibly.
فإنهم يتصرفون بمسؤولية.
إنها ليست حلا سحريا.
Would this be perfect?
will continue to exist.
to me at least, is obviously yes.
بالنسبة لي، من الواضح سيكون نعم.
to our original question:
things that we can do,
يمكننا القيام بها،
happening right now.
and workplaces and other institutions,
وغيرها من المؤسسات،
is doing in Bolivia.
and citizens' assemblies,
ومجالس وطنية،
is doing in Australia,
في أستراليا،
is doing in the US
في الولايات المتحدة
is doing right now.
في الوقت الحالي.
demanding change,
تطالب بالتغيير،
is doing in the UK.
في المملكة المتحدة.
a second chamber in our parliament,
من برلماننا،
تم اختيارها عشوائيا...
for a citizens' senate in France
right here in Hungary.
القيام بها هنا في المجر.
right into the heart of government.
بإمكانها الإطاحة بالحكومة.
in the current system,
elections with sortition.
بنظام الكوتا،
systems have been created,
torn down and replaced
(Hungarian) Thank you.
شكرا (بالهنغارية) .
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Brett Hennig - Author, activistBrett Hennig co-founded and directs the Sortition Foundation, which campaigns to institute the use of stratified, random selection (also called sortition) in government.
Why you should listen
Before co-founding the Sortition Foundation, Brett Hennig wore a variety of hats: as a taxi driver, a software engineer, a social justice activist, a mathematics tutor and the primary carer of four boys. He finished his PhD in astrophysics just before his first son arrived.
After spending several disheartening years in civil society organizations and politics, Hennig became inspired by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's trilogy on political philosophy and began investigating and researching network forms of democracy. The resulting book, The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy, has been called "a book for visionaries" by New Internationalist contributing editor James Kelsey Fry and described as "a powerful critique and provocative alternative" by Professor Erik Olin Wright of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hennig has given many talks promoting sortition and has contributed a chapter, "Who needs elections? Accountability, Equality, and Legitimacy under Sortition," to the forthcoming book Legislature by Lot: Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance (Verso, 2019).
Brett Hennig | Speaker | TED.com