ReThinking Taking politicians out of politics with Hélène Landemore
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Feb 10, 2026 
Hélène Landemore, Yale political scientist who champions citizen assemblies and lottery-based selection, lays out a bold democratic alternative. She traces the idea from ancient Greece to modern trials, explains how ordinary people can draft laws with expert support, and tackles concerns about legitimacy, scale, and incentives in representative systems.
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Use Lotteries To Curb Political Pathology
- Consider replacing legislatures with large randomly selected assemblies where laws are made collectively, not by career politicians.
- Use lotteries to reduce adverse selection of power-seeking, narcissistic candidates and cultivate humility in leaders.
Random Assignment Fosters Humble Leadership
- Random selection reduces leader hubris and fosters servant leadership because appointments aren't earned by campaigning.
- Landemore observes assembly members feel duty and humility, enabling collective intelligence to guide decisions.
Teach Basic Statistics To Build Trust
- Educate the public on basic statistics and representativeness so lottery-based democracy feels understandable and legitimate.
- Emphasize selection-by-lot needs large assemblies for the law of large numbers to ensure representativeness.
