Ezra Klein van de New York Times interviewt Hélène Landemore over democratisering en Open Democracy.
Uit de podcast:
'Elections rely on human choice, which is inherently discriminatory and biased towards certain traits, like charisma, eloquence, height - even bracketing money and socio-economic distinctions. (...) So as a result, to my mind, elections systematically close off access to power to people who are too shy, too ordinary, too weak-willed to stand out in the eyes of other citizens.'
'Elections tend to attract alpha men and women, charismatic types, slightly narcistic types you might say even, and what happens when these people make decisions? They will have blind spots, because they will just not consider certain perspectives, because these perspectives are not there. If you look at the American Congress right now, it is really hard to imagine that they can fully understand what it is to live on a minimum wage in a peri-urban environment, barely making ends meet - it's not the same as having someone who represents that sort of life experience in there.'
'Group intelligence is more a function of the group diversity than the individual compentence of the members. (...) If you exclude perspectives you will not be able to solve the problem the best way you could. (...) This idea of a natural aristocracy who would filter and sort of improve the judgment of ordinary people was a mistake. We thought that if we put the best and brightest in one legislature we would have the best government that we could dream of. Turns out that that's not the case. We would have been better off with a mini-portrait of the people.'
Zie ook:
- Interview met Hélène Landemore over Open Democracy
- Hélène Landemore: 'demofobie in Amerikaanse grondwet'
- Interview met politicologe Hélène Landemore
- Hélène Landemore: maak gelote burgers beslissingsbevoegd
- The New Yorker schrijft opnieuw over loting
- ‘Verkiezingen democratisch? Dat hebben we onszelf wijsgemaakt’, De Standaard, 7 augustus 2021 | Blendle | pdf
- boek: Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century | Amazon.com