Decision by Sortition: A Means to Reduce Rent-Seeking

Alan A Lockard

Public Choice, 2003, vol. 116, issue 3-4, 435-51

Abstract: This essay gives an overview of how a randomized decision mechanism (sortition) can be expected to reduce the intensity of self-interested activity by rent-seeking factions within democracies. The social costs of rent-seeking are briefly reviewed. I then make the case that randomization of collective decision making procedures attenuates rent-seeking expenditures. I illustrate the argument by reference to the highly contested Presidential election of 2000. Finally, I buttress that argument by comparing plurality voting and sortition within the context of Tullock's Efficient Rent-seeking model (1980). Copyright 2003 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 2003
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