What might be some long-term effects of a Citizen Legislature?

Over time more and more individuals in more and more segments of the population will have had the experience of attending to legislative business.
The likely effect of those many and evenly disbursed experiences would be a greater capacity for localities to handle their own affairs.
Thomas Jefferson’s vision might then be realized: “… our General Government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants.”

Another effect probably would be more attention to education in general and civic education in particular. Since qualifications to be included in the lottery for sortitional selection would low enough so as not to unduly disenfranchise any group — a test equivalent in difficulty to that required to obtain a driver’s license in the U.S. – it would be all the more reason to make sure that education was universal and of the highest standard. “After all, your neighbor could be in Congress!”

Since a Citizen Legislature would be proportionally representative, no one could say ‘I am not a part of it’. Everyone would have a truly equal chance of serving.
We would all of us ‘be in it together’ and it would be only as good as ‘we’ are.
For the first time in history, decision-making would be by a fully legitimate representative body.

About Common Lot Sortitionist

Former public television producer-director; initiating culminating career, Common Lot Productions, towards policy-making bodies that are of, BY and for the people.
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