Democracy in Crisis is a special online series of global roundtable discussions about the use of randomly-selected citizen assemblies to further democracy.  Democracy in Crisis is produced by Ahmed Teleb, Brian Standing, the 8 O’Clock Buzz and WORT-FM.

Welcome to the third and final episode of “Crisis in Democracy,” an in-depth series right here on WORT.  In our previous two episodes, we’ve heard about how representative democracies around the globe are failing to live up to their promise and some innovative ideas to get citizens involved in their own government.  Today, we explore the promise and challenges of citizen juries and assemblies — government by random selection, otherwise known as “sortition.”  Joining host Brian Standing are:

* Dr. Paul Cartledge, is the A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College and Emeritus A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University. He is the author of many books on Athenian history, culture, and politics including Democracy, A Life.

* Hélène Landemore is Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Her research and teaching interests include democratic theory, political epistemology, theories of justice, the philosophy of social sciences, constitutional processes and theories, and workplace democracy. Hélène is the author of Democratic Reason and Open Democracy, as well as a book in French on David Hume, two edited volumes, and multiple peer-reviewed articles. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Review, Slate, the Washington Post, L’Humanité, Le Monde, and recently the New Yorker. She is a member of the core group behind the Democratizing Work movement. She is currently serving as expert consultant for the Fr...