The American Philosophical Association and the San José State University Department of Philosophy present The American Philosophical Association Lecture, "Lottocracy: Democracy without Elections," delivered by Alexander Guerrero (Prof. of Philosophy at Rutgers University).

Democracy is in trouble. What is going wrong? What ought to be done? Alex Guerrero argues that the problem is the heart of democracy in its modern form: the election. Although electoral representative democracy has been a significant improvement over other practiced political systems, the basic mechanism—the election—is broken and non-viable under modern large-scale political conditions. Guerrero argues that we should introduce a new form of democracy: lottocracy. Lottocratic systems incorporate many new elements, but the most striking is the shift from using elected representatives to using representatives selected through lottery. Guerrero will discuss the promise of lottocratic systems and potential concerns. He will consider how rights of broad political participation, political equality, political power, and political accountability and legitimacy are illuminated and reconfigured in a lottocratic framework.

This event is free and open to the public.