Randomness and legitimacy in selecting democratic representatives

textThe addition of random selection to our arsenal of methods for selecting political officials would enhance performance against norms of representative democracy. I employ historical and analytic methods to explore the nature of sortition and its relation to political equality, rational decision-making, and legitimate representation. Sortition both expresses a democratic commitment to political equality and facilitates improved performance under this democratic norm. It can be rational to eschew reasons in the process of selecting political officials, and decision-making bodies chosen randomly can be expected to make good decisions. I also address concerns stemming from representative norms, surrounding random selection of officials, arguing that random selection can enhance the resemblance and responsiveness of representatives. Finally, I detail some possibilities for institutional arrangements that would deliver the benefits of sortition while addressing the challenges it presents.Governmen

The Priority of Racial Constituency over Descriptive Representation

Several normative political theorists argue for racially descriptive representation, or for blacks to represent blacks. I contend that if theorists believe that blacks deserve additional measures to improve their substantive political representation, then they should prioritize the creation of racial constituencies independently of whether such constituencies elect black representatives. Prioritizing racial constituency circumvents essentialism within descriptive representation and better reflects the role of electoral authorization and accountability in generating trust between representatives and constituents. As a result, descriptive representation becomes one of several criteria (along with other identity markers, ideological proximity, and general competence and trustworthiness) to be applied by a racial constituency in selecting a preferable representative. Ultimately, prioritizing racial constituency allows normative theorists to affirm, without philosophical contradiction, the existence of black districts that elect nonblack representatives; contain black ideological minorities; exhibit diverse political interests; reflect shifting electoral constituencies; and elect representatives with divergent representational styles

Using evolutionary algorithms to select parameters from equivalence classes

This paper presents some ideas about an approach which aims at extending existing methodologies for functional testing. Experience in automotive applications has shown that when selecting parameters for functional testing, many times a tester has equivalence classes in mind. Instead of losing valuable information in the process, support should be given to make them manageable. The proposed approach suggests evolutionary testing strategies to search for critical representatives within equivalence classes

Quotas for Men: Reframing Gender Quotas as a Means of Improving Representation for All

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