Sortition

Sortition is the act of random selection, particularly of decision makers. Today the only government positions regularly filled this way are court juries, however it has been used for political and administrative offices, sometimes combined with an element of qualification or election.

Classical advocates of sortition, such as Aristotle, held that it was a more democratic process than election since it was less influenced by money and fame. Contempory supporters also add that sortition allows direct democracy to scale up to today's large populations: by reducing the number of people making a decision from the whole population down to an unbiased sample of that population, sortition alleviates the problems of voter fatigue and rational ignorance which occur in general elections and referenda.

Examples:

Historical
- The Athenian Democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery rather than by election.
- The Doges of Venice were appointed by a lengthy procedure which alternated between sortition and election.
Current
- Juries still exist but today are only found in law courts.
- The Canadian province of British Columbia is asking a randomly selected citizens assembly to choose a new electoral system. http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/.
- Danish Consensus Conferences give ordinary citizens a chance to make their voices heard in debates on public policy. The selection of citizens is not perfectly random, but still aims to be representitive.
Non Government
- Consensus conferences have been run un the USA by the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization concerned with the social, political, and environmental repercussions of research, science and technology.
- Deliberative Polls
Proposals
- Demarchy is a political system in which many small "citizen's juries" would deliberate and make decisions about public policies.
- Ernest Callenbach and Michael Phillips argue for random selection of the U.S. House of Representitives in their book "A Citizen Legislature".

Related Links

Synonyms within Context: Sortition

Modern Translation: Sortition

Language		Translations for "sortition"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		ndarje sipas shortit. (various references)

Bulgarian		хвърляне на жребие (toss up). (various references)

Hungarian		sorshúzás (draw, lot, sortilege, the draw, the lot). (various references)

Pig Latin		ortitionsay

Portuguese		sorteio (door prize, raffle), tiragem � sorte (draw by lot, drawing, drawing by lot). (various references)

Russian		жеребьевка (draw, drawing, the toss of the coin, toss up, tossup). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		bacanje kocke. (various references)

Spanish		sorteo (ballot, draw, lot, lottery, raffle, toss up). (various references)

Ukrainian		жеребкування (ballot, draw, toss up). (various references)

Vietnamese		sự rút thăm, sự bắt thăm. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations: Sortition

Rhyming with "Sortition"

Words rhyming with "sortition" (pronounced 'Sor*ti"tion'): Abacination, Abaction, Abalienation, Abarticulation, Abbreviation, Abdication, Abduction, Aberration, Abevacuation, Abirritation, Abjection, Abjudication, Abjuration, Ablactation, Ablaqueation, Ablation, Ablegation, Abligurition, Abnegation, Abnodation, Abolition, Abomination, Abortion, Abreaction, Abrenunciation, Abreption, Abrogation, Abruption, Absentation, Absolution, Absorbition, Absorption, Abstention, Abstraction, Absumption, Accentuation, Acceptation, Acceptilation, Acception, Acclimatation, Acclimation, Acclimatization, Accombination, Accommodation, Accreditation, Accrementition, Accretion, Accubation, Accusation, Acervation. (additional references)

Anagrams: Sortition

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "i-i-n-o-o-r-s-t-t"
	-1 letter: introits, tortonis.
	-2 letters: intorts, introit, ironist, nitroso, risotto, torsion, tortoni, tritons.
	-3 letters: intort, intros, nitros, orison, otitis, stotin, triton.
	-4 letters: intis, intro, irons, nitro, noirs, noris, ornis, ottos, riots, roost, roots, rosin, rotis, rotos, snoot, snort, stint, tints, tiros, titis, toits, toons, toots, torii, toros, torot, torsi, torso, torts, trios, trois, trots.
	-5 letters: inro, inti.
	Words containing the letters "i-i-n-o-o-r-s-t-t"
	+1 letter: distortion, sortitions.
	+2 letters: abortionist, contritions, distortions, notorieties.
	+3 letters: abortionists, anorthositic, constriction, distortional, erotizations, extortionist, importations, operationist, orientations, orotundities, periodontist, prostitution, strobilation.
	+4 letters: amortizations, constrictions, contortionist, contributions, corruptionist, enterocolitis, ethnohistoric, extortionists, interposition, introductions, introjections, introspection, monstrosities, motorizations, nonnutritious, notarizations, obliterations, operationists, opportunistic, opportunities, ornithologist, periodontists, pontificators, projectionist, propitiations, prostitutions, protectionism, protectionist, ratiocinators, remotivations, retrodictions, revolutionist, robotizations, strobilations, theorizations, transposition.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: Sortition

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

53 6F 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

⁼

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

... --- .-. - .. - .. --- -.

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010011 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#83 &#111 &#114 &#116 &#105 &#116 &#105 &#111 &#110

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0053 006F 0072 0074 0069 0074 0069 006F 006E

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Intention	Drawing lots; sortilegy, sortition; sortes, sortes Virgilianae; rouge et noir, hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo, craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing, heads or tails cross and pile, poker-dice; wager; bet, betting; gambling; the turf.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Sortition

Definition: Sortition

Sortition

Noun

Synonyms: Sortition

Specialty Definition: Sortition

Related Links

Synonyms within Context: Sortition

Intention

Modern Translation: Sortition

Albanian

Bulgarian

Hungarian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Derivations: Sortition

Derivations

Rhyming with "Sortition"

Anagrams: Sortition

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Alternative Orthography: Sortition

53 6F 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E

... --- .-. - .. - .. --- -.

01010011 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110

&#83 &#111 &#114 &#116 &#105 &#116 &#105 &#111 &#110

0053 006F 0072 0074 0069 0074 0069 006F 006E

538184867586758180

INDEX

Derivations
	Words beginning with "sortition": sortitions. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).