The next president should be selected by lottery. It could be you

Irish Times

21 hours ago

New names are emerging each week as possible candidates for the race for the Áras. Plenty of retired politicians and members of the RTÉ 'talent' pool have been mentioned.
But do you know who could make a great president of Ireland? You.
A party nomination is out of reach for the average citizen. But what if, instead of our restrictive electoral system, we adopted a practice that was once seen as integral to democracy – that is, allocating high office by lottery?
The Ancient Athenians recognised 2,000 years ago how public ballots could be unfairly gamed by elites. While the Greeks of antiquity used voting for many forms of decision-making, they sought to guard against excessive influence by political cliques. So they selected the majority of governing 'magistrates' randomly from the populace.
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Sortition – or selection of leaders by drawing lots – may sound radical, but 'to my mind is not really radical at all', says former US congressman Jim Bacchus who makes the case for its greater use in a new book, Democracy for a Sustainable World. 'It's about believing what we say when we say that people are capable of governing themselves.'
Sortition can be a much fairer way of allocating limited goods than competition. It can also create a more even distribution of representation than hand-picking office-holders. We use lotteries to select juries in the criminal courts, for example.
Most importantly, however, sortition widens public participation in politics. It gives people who might be excluded from public service an opportunity to feel part of something bigger.
It is this latter feature which makes sortition so essential for politics today, says Bacchus, a US army veteran who served in the
US House of Representatives
and held a senior role in the
World Trade Organisation
.
Democratic countries are riven by tribal politics, low electoral turnouts and above all distrust in political and scientific institutions. 'What is missing that would help provide trust? What is missing is participation,' Bacchus says. The Athenians were far from perfect – they held slaves and denied women citizenship – but they took the idea of self-governance seriously, he says.
Ireland's recent experiments in participative democracy have drawn praise internationally. The 2013 Convention on the Constitution considered a number of matters, including legalising same-sex marriage. Its recommendation paved the way for the historic
public vote for marriage equality in 2015
.
The Citizens' Assembly on abortion in 2016-2017 helped to generate a consensus on legislative proposals before the Repeal the Eighth referendum, resulting in a more rational debate for the poll than there would otherwise have been.
Members of the 2023 Citizens' Assembly consider legislative changes on drug use and treatment. Photograph: Alan Betson
Working at its best, participative democracy allows for people with radically different viewpoints to negotiate necessary compromise – informed by scientific evidence and removed from party political mudslinging. So it's sad to see the Government has now scrapped the experiment, little over a decade on from its first trial.
The programme for government contains no plan for a citizens' assembly in the next five years. A promised assembly on education that would examine issues such as patronage reform and modernising the
Leaving Certificate
has been ditched in favour of a possible 'convention' of 'stakeholders' – in other words, the usual shouting match between vested interests.
Returning to the presidency, think of the message Ireland would send the world by allocating the most prestigious office in the land to an everyman or everywoman?
In an era in which crooks and despots cling on to power at all costs, Ireland could model a different type of democracy where every citizen has an equal entitlement to participation in the administration of the State at the highest level.
Michael D Higgins is flanked by his predecessors, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, in 2011 at his inauguration. Photograph: Maxwells
The president has important powers – it's not just a symbolic role – so safeguards would have to be put in place. But a rotating office would be manageable. Jury members in the courts are instructed on their duties when empanelled and can face penalties if they abuse their position or if they breach court rules.
The initiative could even save money. There would be no need for spending on presidential elections. And instead of paying the office holder the current rate of €250,000-plus, citizens who volunteer for the role could get the average industrial wage for each stint.
A three-month term sounds reasonable. So over the next seven years we could have 28 presidents drawn from the populace: a nurse, a teacher, a carer, a farmer, a banker, all of Ireland in its glory. Each incumbent could potentially bring their own focus to issues, viewpoints and experiences that otherwise fall outside the public eye.
Moreover, it would avoid the risk of the presidency being captured by a single ideological incumbent. Not everyone was happy with
Michael D Higgins's
forays into domestic and international affairs.
What if the next president is more strident on a single issue, such as 'driving the Brits out of Northern Ireland', potentially alienating large sections of the island's population?
Should the presidency really be a winner-takes-all office? Or can we do something more inventive – and politically inclusive – with the job itself?
Yes, it's radical. But I for one have confidence in you. Just as I have confidence in the decency and ability of the average Irish citizen.
All we need now is to get things in motion: a citizens' assembly on the matter would be a good first step.