It is proposed that political parties should select their parliamentary candidates by way of sortition. Alternatives such as party primaries, caucus votes, and elite selection create entry points for elite manipulation of the electoral process.
While sortition for electing parliaments directly – being random – controls for elite capture, it is also likely to dissolve political parties and established voting blocs within parliament. This would undermine the democratic ideal of political parties, including their role in producing comprehensible and feasible legislative agendas.

It is argued that sortition within parties will not have that effect. Rather, it promotes the ideal by guarding against elite capture and stimulating internal deliberation through engaging rank-and-file members, each of whom might be randomly selected as local candidates. Voting will still weed out poor candidates in the general election. Party members should also be able to vote to retain successful lottery winners for subsequent elections to incentivise good performance and party discipline in parliament. The limited use of insaculación by the Mexican political party Morena is discussed as provisional evidence for the feasibility of this proposal.

Keith Dowding is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Political Philosophy at the Australian National University, and has published widely on political philosophy, public administration, public policy, methods and comparative politics. His last book was It’s the Government Stupid: How Governments Blame Citizens for the Own Policies.

Dr William Bosworth is Lecturer in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the Australian National University. He has published on political theory in journals such as Journal of Politics, Journal of Theoretical Politics, European Journal of Political Theory, and other political science and philosophy journals.