A bicameral design proposed by John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright: an elected chamber paired with an equally empowered chamber of randomly selected citizens. It remains a proposal.
Gastil and Wright proposed the design in a 2018 Politics & Society article and the 2019 Verso volume Legislature by Lot. The legislature would have an elected chamber and a 'sortition assembly', with equal powers: each can initiate legislation and vote on the other's bills. Members of the sortition chamber would be well paid, trained and supported by staff, serving overlapping multi-year terms. Earlier proposals include Callenbach and Phillips (1985) and Barnett and Carty's The Athenian Option for the House of Lords. Partial parallels only: the German-speaking Community of Belgium has had a permanent lot-selected Citizens' Council since 2019, but it sets agendas for citizens' assemblies and does not legislate. Objections: accountability, representativeness of those who accept service, and political equality in a small chamber.
Not adopted by a legislature. Gastil and Wright's own conclusion points to 'ideal settings for experimenting with sortition'; the 2019 volume collects sixteen responses from advocates and critics.
Gastil and Wright propose a two-chamber legislature with an elected chamber and a randomly selected 'sortition assembly' of equal powers, each able to initiate legislation and vote on the other's bills, with well-paid, trained members in staggered terms.[1][2]
A 2019 decree of the German-speaking Community of Belgium created a permanent Citizens' Council and temporary citizens' assemblies, both selected by lot, which formulate recommendations; elected representatives and the minister then decide whether and how to implement them. This is a partial parallel, not a lot-selected legislature.[1][2]
Owen and Smith argue that the Gastil–Wright design, as conceived, would not sufficiently secure political equality and deliberative reasoning unless sortition were combined with rotation and a limited mandate, and propose a larger chamber with more internal sortition.[1][2]