When voting fails (with Nicholas Gruen)

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Dec 24, 2025

Nicholas Gruen, an economist and advocate for democratic reform, explores innovative ideas for governance. He discusses the contrast between electoral representation and random sampling, using the example of citizen juries. Gruen critiques party dynamics that contribute to mismanagement and polarization while emphasizing the need for impartial decision-making structures. He proposes citizen councils as a way to enhance representation and highlights the importance of shared values in democracy. Additionally, he examines how practical wisdom can improve policymaking.

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INSIGHT

Adversarial Expertise Breeds Bias

Adversarial systems let each side present experts, producing biased, expensive, and unequal outcomes.
A unitary, inquisitorial center can yield fairer, cheaper fact-finding for society.

ADVICE

Choose Leaders By Deliberation

For high-power offices, consider deliberative selection mechanisms instead of open competitive primaries.
Methods like electoral colleges or conclave-style searches can prioritize merit over showmanship.

ANECDOTE

Papal Conclave's Merit Selection

The Catholic conclave picks popes via secret ballots and deliberation rather than open competition.
That process often produces formidable leaders who did not campaign for power.

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Read the full transcript here.

Which decisions should be made by election and which by random sampling? Where is competition healthy for choosing leaders, and where must rule-setting be unitary and impartial? What would credible umpires look like - judges, statisticians, pay reviewers - and how do we insulate them from parties? Can citizen juries and standing sampled councils surface red lines, negotiate overlap, and rebuild losers’ consent? Why does professional party culture normalize behavior individuals would reject, and can structured deliberation beat competitive groupthink? How do we measure success for rule-setters - accuracy, legitimacy, or a cooler temperature? When do promotions-as-power contests crowd out service, and could elections without candidates find better leaders? How much polarization is real cleavage versus performance layered over broad agreement, and how do institutions interrupt cosplay turning into violence? What minimum independence and accountability keep sampled bodies honest without drifting into technocracy? Where should problem-solving favor practical wisdom over pure truth-finding - embedding local knowledge alongside trials, models, and metrics?

Nicholas Gruen is an economist and entrepreneur and a commentator on democracy. He chaired the Government 2.0 Taskforce which helped set the Australian Government’s policy to navigate the threats and opportunities of open data and social media. Global Government Forum will shortly begin a (5 part podcast)[https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/government-transformed-podcast-sharing-the-inside-story-of-how-to-make-public-service-change-happen/] on the Government 2.0 Taskforce fifteen years on. He is Patron of the Australian Digital Alliance, comprising Australia’s libraries, universities, and digital infrastructure providers such as Google and Yahoo.

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Spencer Greenberg — Host + Director
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