Random Recruitment, Civil Society, and the State

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores how a particular political procedure, the random recruitment of citizens for public office, relates to, and operates within, two important arenas of political and social activity: civil society and the state. It is based on three case studies. (1) The seditious libel controversy in eighteenth-century Britain. (2) The custodians of the lottery bags in fourteenth-century Florence. (3) Key aspects of ancient Athenian democracy. To begin with, I introduce the subject of the random process in its social setting by looking at lottery use in the distribution of commonly held resources. Because civil society and the state are both contested concepts, this is then followed by a discussion in which I formulate an analytical framework for the case studies. This includes two more categories: political society and the citizens. My overall conclusion is that random recruitment has been used, and can be used, to establish direct working links between the citizenry and the state. These can operate in a manner that is free from the direct influence of civil society and political society groupings.