I can’t stop thinking about what I initially thought was a crazy article in the New York Times by an organizational psychologist Adam Grant. He thinks elections in the US should be replaced by random lotteries.
We would all have a chance to write a basic civics test similar to what new immigrants have to pass to become a citizen and our names would go into a random lottery to be President, a lawmaker, a state governor or even a judge.
Experiments have shown that groups of people make better decisions when leaders are chosen randomly because they are more democratic and have a greater sense of responsibility. Also, elections tend to favour candidates with narcissistic, Machiavellian and psychopathic traits which can lead to dangerous leaders. A random lottery would make it less likely for those types to gain power.
That would certainly explain why some really nutty people in American politics win elections and make headlines with some of their antics.
Now, while things haven’t gotten as bad in Canada I’m sure we still have our share of people who are in politics for the wrong reasons.
Do you think a random lottery giving everyone a chance to run the country or province might be a good idea?
