Brett Hennig: What if we replaced politicians with randomly selected people?
Brett Hennig: Cum ar fi dacă am înlocui politicienii cu oameni aleşi la întâmplare?
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,
din marile întrebări,
who perhaps live in a city
care poate locuiesc într-un oraş
the rules that govern us?
care ne guvernează?
an important question.
it's even more important than ever
importantă ca niciodată
climate change, the refugee crisis,
schimbările climatice, criza refugiaţilor,
probleme importante.
themselves this question
in organized societies.
în societăţi organizate.
de paznici binevoitori
for the greater good of everyone.
they could be those guardians,
că ei pot fi acei gardieni,
they tended to lose their heads.
capul în timpul revoluţiilor.
his answer of how to live together.
în care credea că trebuie să trăim.
crud şi inuman.
a different kind of answer,
into hibernation for 2,000 years,
at the modern history of democracy,
modernă a democraţiei
to put the last 200 years.
the number of democracies.
of democracy's triumph,
secolul triumfului democraţiei
Francis Fukuyama în 1989,
the end of history,
sfârşitul istoriei,
has been answered,
cum să trăim împreună
living in a democracy is a good thing?
bine să trăim în democraţie?
keep your hands down.
mai bun, nu ridicaţi mâna.
who didn't raise their hands,
celor care nu au ridicat mâna
are functioning well?
noastre funcţionează bine?
in the audience somewhere.
un politician pe aici.
is the end of history,
liberală este sfârşitul istoriei,
or contradiction here.
sau contradicţie,
is about the ideal of democracy,
este despre idealul democraţiei
are very appealing.
our politicians aren't trusted,
politicienii nu sunt de încredere,
by powerful vested interests.
de interese puternice.
to resolve this paradox.
de a rezolva paradoxul.
it doesn't work.
nu funcţionează.
who will ignore democratic norms,
care va ignora normele democratice
is to fix this broken system,
de a repara acest sistem defect,
in our parliaments
din societate în parlament
evidence-based laws
legi bazate pe dovezi
în beneficiul tuturor.
"Why wouldn't this work?"
„De ce nu ar funcționa?”
afterwards about it.
este „alegere la întâmplare”.
and put them in parliament.
şi îi punem în parlament.
for a few more minutes, shall we?
and you and you and you down there
şi pe tine şi pe tine şi pe tine
for the next couple of years.
pentru următorii ani.
to make sure that it matched
pentru a fi siguri că se potriveşte
profile of the country
şi demografică a ţării voastre
sample of people.
reprezentativ de persoane.
some would be old,
ordinary people like you and me.
oameni obişnuiți ca noi.
how we would all think,
the moral crux of political decisions.
la decizii politice corecte.
faci parte din grup,
someone of your gender,
and someone with your background
cineva cu pregătirea ta
would build on the wisdom of crowds.
ar fi bazate pe înţelepciunea mulţimii.
than the sum of their parts.
decât suma părţilor lor.
nu deasupra lor.
that diversity can trump ability
poate depăși abilitatea
of societal questions and problems.
cu o mulţime de probleme şi întrebări.
by public opinion poll.
de opinie publică.
would move beyond public opinion
ar acţiona dincolo de opinia publică
one major side effect:
truly representative of society,
reprezentativ pentru societate,
pretty sad to see that.
foarte trişti să vedem asta.
of how democracy was done
prin care democraţia era implementată
is called a kleroteria.
este numit kleroteria.
random-selection device.
aleatorie din Atena antica.
randomly selected citizens
cetăţenii la întâmplare,
of their political posts.
posturilor politice.
were aristocratic devices.
sunt un mecanism aristocratic.
were a thing to be avoided.
politicienii de carieră.
the ancient use of random selection
vechi mod de alegere aleatorie
of random selection in politics
alegerilor aleatorii în politică
too many examples to talk about.
despre care putem vorbi.
that it's going to be difficult
prietenului vostru:
with randomly selected people."
să existe oameni aleşi la întâmplare”.
separate his recycling."
but overwhelming and compelling evidence
însă copleşitor şi convingător semn
they act responsibly.
vor acţiona responsabil.
nu este un panaceu.
Would this be perfect?
va fi acest sistem perfect?
will continue to exist.
vor continua să existe.
to me at least, is obviously yes.
evident că da.
to our original question:
things that we can do,
pe care le putem face
happening right now.
and workplaces and other institutions,
locuri de muncă şi alte instituţii,
is doing in Bolivia.
în Practică în Bolivia.
and citizens' assemblies,
şi adunări ale cetăţenilor
is doing in Australia,
Fundaţia Democraţia în Australia,
is doing in the US
is doing right now.
demanding change,
care cere schimbarea,
is doing in the UK.
în Marea Britanie.
ar trebui să o instituim.
a second chamber in our parliament,
unei a doua camere în Parlament
for a citizens' senate in France
pentru un senat al cetăţenilor
right here in Hungary.
şi la noi în Ungaria.
right into the heart of government.
în inima guvernului.
in the current system,
elections with sortition.
să înlocuim alegerile cu sortiţia.
systems have been created,
torn down and replaced
(Hungarian) Thank you.
(în maghiară) Mulţumesc.
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