Democracy by Sortition, Liberal Elections and Communist Revolutionaries

What if we selected our leaders by lottery? Zooming out of the mud hut villages of indigenous communities in the forested hills of eastern India, this lecture will compare three different models of leadership and democracy: liberal electoral democracy, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist democracy, and sortition, that is the drawing of lots. It will turn how we think about democracy and leadership on its head to provide a new vision for the future.

The David Graeber Memorial Lecture Series is a collaborative project of Anthropology and Social Change (CIIS), The Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (BUAP), The Élisabeth Bruyère School of Social Innovation (St. Paul University), and University of Rojava.